Swing boy loses damages claim

Heads say it's a victory for common sense

A High Court judge has overturned a damages award made to a boy who fell off a swing while playing Superman.

Mr Justice Gross said the courts needed to use common sense when dealing with compensation claims.

Ryan Simonds had been awarded £4,250 from his school after he broke his arm after straying into a nearby playground on its sports day.

Head teachers have welcomed the ruling, saying they hope it will curb the compensation culture of some parents.

Ryan Simonds was five when the accident happened in 1997, near Chillerton County Primary - on the Isle of Wight.

He had been having a picnic with his mother about 50 metres away from where other children were playing before she left, telling him to go over to where the teachers were.

His mother Michelle Simonds, said she heard Ryan scream a few minutes later.

He had strayed into the nearby playground and fallen from the swing.

Threat to sports days

Earlier this year Southampton County Court awarded damages against the school, saying the school had been aware of the potential danger from the swings and should have taped them off.

But High Court judge Mr Justice Gross overturned that decision, saying if "word got out" about the damages awarded, "sports days and other pleasurable sporting events will simply not take place".

If this decision had been allowed to stand it could have seen an end to school sports days and other similar events Rod Warne, Isle of Wight Council

"Such events could easily become uninsurable, or only insurable at prohibitive cost," he said.

The local authority and head teachers' leaders have welcomed the ruling.

Rod Warne, of the Isle of Wight Council, said: "This has been a victory for common sense.

"If this decision had been allowed to stand it could have seen an end to school sports days and other similar events throughout the country simply because schools and other organisations could not afford the prohibitive premiums that insurers would charge to cover them.

"The council would also like to remember the staff of Chillerton Primary who have had this incident and the implication that they had acted incorrectly hanging over them for years."

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association, said he was pleased there had been a "sensible decision" on compensation, which he hoped would stop parents from taking schools to court for anything which went wrong.

"Schools supervise playgrounds and corridors but children will always find ways to avoid their gaze.

"It is a sign of our growing litigiousness, following America, where people turn to the courts before they blink."

At the High Court, the judge ordered Ryan Simonds' family to pay the school's costs, estimated to be several thousands of pounds.

However, it is thought the family's solicitors had taken the case on a "no win, no fee basis" so they may pay the costs.