INJURED AT SPORT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20132, 29 December 1939, Page 2

INJURED AT SPORT

CASES OF SCHOOLBOYS CLAIMS BEFORE COURT LONDON, Dec. 20. Cases of boys injured in school sport nave been occupying the attention of Mr. Justice Humphreys. The judge gave judgment at the Lewes Assizes against a boy, aged nine, who, with his father, sued the principal of his preparatory school for damages for a dislocated neck, allegedly suffered during a boxing lesson. Plaintiffs claimed that a master with whom the boy was sparring struck the boy a severe blow on the neck. The defence argued that the boy injured his neck by suddenly jerking his head away. In an earlier case, the judge awarded a schoolboy, aged 11, a sum of £750 damages and his father £2O special damages. The boy, through his father, sued the East Sussex County Council for injuries received in a match between a school eleven and 17 juniors, allegedly when a schoolmaster placed him at silly mid-on. The judge said he concluded that the boy was considerably less than 10 yards from the wicket. He was satisfied that the teacher would not have allowed the boy there if he had noticed him but because of other duties as an umpire, he failed to exercise the care the law required from a master in charge of a pupil.