College not responsible for unforeseeable accident, High Court rules

Interesting article from RoPA

A drama student has lost his High Court claim to compensation after the judge ruled that the college he attended could not be held responsible for one of its students’ impulsive actions.

The student sued Rose Bruford College in Sidcup after he was left tetraplegic after launching himself into a shallow inflatable pool at the college’s summer ball.
He was 21 years old at the time.

The student claimed that the college had breached its duty of care by failing to carry out appropriate risk assessments or taking other steps to guard against participants injuring themselves.

But the Court ruled that the accident was not reasonably foreseeable and that no risk assessment would have preventing him from diving in the pool in the way he did.

The judge, Mr Justice Jay, acknowledged that health and safety responsibilities on the day had “fallen between the metaphorical cracks” but said that the college was not under any duty to warn the student organisers about avoiding “plain and obvious risks”.

“I do not find that the risk assessments should have covered the risk of head-first entry into the pool, although ‘foolish play’ should have been in contemplation, as indeed it was – albeit after the event,” Mr Jay wrote in his judgement.

He also said that requiring the pool to be taped off would be “disproportionate” and “somewhat patronising”.

“Nor do I find that the Defendant would or should have warned the Ball Team [the team organising the summer ball] about avoiding plain and obvious risks, although I do find that the Defendant would and should have issued firm warnings about avoiding a repetition of the horseplay of the previous year.”