119. If any doubt arises concerning a boxer's condition then referral to a local hospital for emergency treatment or advice should be undertaken and a report sent to the Board. Furthermore, if an ambulance service is called and agrees to attend the patient, those caring for the patient normally abandon any attempt to find an alternative means of transport to the hospital". The purpose of his assessment was to enable him to give expert advice to the education authority about the child. Mr Morris, commenting in his Witness Statement on the Statement of Claim, stated: "We do collaborate with the medical profession, indeed we believe that our Rules are as good as currently can be devised, taking into account the medical interests of the boxers, and the requirements of the sport itself. Dr Ross, the Board's Chief Medical Officer for the Southern Area, was asked why the Medical Committee did not make the recommendations made after Mr Watson's injuries at an earlier stage. The Judge went on to review such statistical evidence as there was in relation to the frequency of occurrence of head injuries in boxing and observed that there had been no evidence to suggest that the Board considered and balanced the difficulty of providing the adequate response to the risks of head injury against their frequency of occurrence and severity of outcome. Serious brain damage such as that suffered by Mr Watson, though happily an uncommon consequence of a boxing injury, represented the most serious risk posed by the sport and one that required to be addressed. [2] He was given no oxygen, and first sent to a hospital which lacked a neurosurgery unit. Interact directly with CaseMine users looking for advocates in your area of specialization. ii) rules designed to restrict the physical injuries that may be caused in the course of the fight; iii) rules designed to secure that a boxer receives appropriate medical attention when injured in the course of a fight. 6. A doctor must be available to give immediate attention to any boxer should this be required. In these circumstances there is no close proximity between the services and the general public. I see no reason why the rules should not have contained the provision suggested by the Judge. Mr Watson's injuries were not, however, without precedent. Mr Walker urged that a duty of care should not be imposed upon the Board because it was a non profit-making organisation and did not carry insurance. Get 2 points on providing a valid reason for the above The doctors should decide between them who will remain ringside and who will undertake the emergency treatment should the need arise. 82. Sports injuries - Edge Hill University It carried out this function by making and imposing rules dealing with the safety of boxers, by approving medical officers and by giving detailed guidance as to the qualifications and equipment those officers should bring to the ringside. The agreed time of reception at the hospital was 23.22. said: "In my opinion authorities who run a hospital, be they local authorities, government boards, or any other corporation, are in law under the selfsame duty as the humblest doctor. Applied Barrett v Ministry of Defence CA 3-Jan-1995 The deceased was an off-duty naval airman. Test. Similarly none of the particular difficulties which arise in relation to economic loss arise in relation to the causing of personal injury. Had the Board's rules required Mr Hamlyn's protocol to be put in place, the doctors present could have been expected to have resorted to resuscitation. This stated that the Board was accepted as being the sole controlling body regulating professional boxing in the United Kingdom and stressed the importance that the Board place on ensuring the safety of boxers. I found this submission unrealistic. 36. A number of authorities show that an acceptance of the role (usually under statutory powers or duties) of protecting the community in general from foreseeable dangers does not carry with it a legal duty of care to safeguard individual members of the community from those dangers. Brain Injuries in Sport: Remedies under English Law In his Witness Statement, Mr Morris accepted that the following averment in the Statement of Claim was "basically correct": "at all material times, by reason of the effective control over boxing that the Board assumed, the Board was in a position to determine, and did in fact determine, the measures that were taken in boxing to protect and promote the health and safety of boxers. It is a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that personal injuries already sustained are properly treated. I think that the Judge was right. Trespass in English law and Related Topics - hyperleap.com A primary stated object of the Board was to look after its boxing member's physical safety. expounded the relevant principles of law in the following passages: "A minimum requirement of particularity and contemplation is required. Mr. Usherwood was the person who was carrying out this role in relation to Mr. Collins' assembly of this aircraft. 104. Subsequently they were incorporated in the Rules by an addition to Regulation 8. Had he been asked in the period before the Eubank/Watson fight to advise on precautions in relation to the risk of serious head injury, he said that he would have given the same advice as Mr Hamlyn. There are, however, authorities dealing with advice given to third parties that foreseeably resulted in injury to the person or property of claimants. Obviously a full report should then be sent to the relevant Area Council or Board and the sooner this is done, from a medical view point, the better.". 120. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it. In view of this, they said that there should have been available at the ringside resuscitation equipment and doctors who knew how to use this. This is a further factor which tends to establish the proximity necessary for a duty of care. Once resuscitation, or stabilisation has taken place, the next stage is neuro-surgery to remove the haematoma and seal any ruptured veins or arteries. Thus the. so-called requirements for a duty of care are not to be treated as wholly separate and distinct requirements but rather as convenient and helpful approaches to the pragmatic question whether a duty should be imposed in any given case. In Clay v. Crump & Sons Ltd [1964] 1 QB 133 a building worker was injured when a wall collapsed on him. 130. A case that is instructive is the English case of Watson v British Boxing Board of Control ([2001] 2 WLR 1256), the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) was held liable for the injuries sustained by Michael Watson. Watson successfully sued the BBBC for 400,000 after being left with brain injuries following his 1991 fight with Chris Eubank. The comparison drawn by Mr Walker between the Board and a rescuer is not apt. Watson faces 400,000 compensation limit | Boxing | The Guardian 34. Instead he argued that even if resuscitation had been used, it would have been used too late to affect the outcome. Dr Ross, who was a member of the Medical Committee for a number of years before the Watson fight, was asked whether he remembered discussions about treatment in the ring of head injuries before that fight. The Board assumes the, 89. The phrase means simply that the law recognises that there is a duty of care. [1997] QB 1004 at 1034. If he volunteers his assistance, his only duty as a matter of law is not to make the victim's condition worse. The normal duty of a doctor to exercise reasonable skill and care is well established as a common law duty of care. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control: Negligent Rule-Making in the Court of Appeal. 37. Learn. The nature of that duty was recently considered by this Court in Capital and Counties PLC v. Hampshire C.C. Creating a unique profile web page containing interviews, posts, articles, as well as the cases you have appeared in, greatly enhances your digital presence on search engines such Google and Bing, resulting in increased client interest. Try and prevent and/or treat raised intracranial pressure. 88. The conduct of the activity of professional boxing carries with it, for the small body of men that take part in it, the need for the provision of medical assistance to treat the injuries that they sustain and minimise their adverse consequences. 343, Denning L.J. This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, who noted that the BBBC had a duty not only to ensure that injuries did not occur, but that injuries were properly treated. In these circumstances the claim against Mr Usherwood was a conventional claim for carelessness causing direct and foreseeable personal injury. There was no contract between the parties, but boxers had to fight under the Board's rules. In the subsequent action for personal injuries, this Court held that the ambulance service had been in breach of a duty of care in failing to arrive promptly. The final point taken by the Board was that they did not receive advice in relation to the desirability of ringside resuscitation until after Mr Watson's injuries. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,100],'swarb_co_uk-medrectangle-3','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-swarb_co_uk-medrectangle-3-0'); Cited by: Cited Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004 The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. I have not heard evidence to the effect that the Board or its medical advisers had before this incident considered, and for some reason decided not to follow, what may not unfairly be called this protocol. In answer to a claim by the workman, the architect argued that his only duty was the contractual duty that he owed to the owners of the building. 68. The wall had remained standing because the architect employed in supervising the building works had failed to advise that it was dangerous and should be demolished. 11. In particular they are boxers. The medical room should be situated in close proximity to the boxer's dressing rooms and be reasonable accessible to and from the ring. that the negligence alleged fell into the category of directly causing foreseeable personal injury, both he and Swinton Thomas L.J. The referee stopped the fight in the final round when Watson appeared to be unable to defend himself. The most obvious category of case of a duty of care to administer medical treatment to restrict the consequences of injury or illness, or to effect a cure, is that of the duty owed by a doctor or a hospital authority to a patient. 5. Thus the Board was a body with special knowledge giving advice to a defined class of persons in the knowledge that it would rely upon that advice in the defined situation of boxing contests. This ground of appeal would have been unsustainable. Herbert Smith, London. The Board was involved in an activity which gave it, not merely a measure of control, but complete control over and a responsibility for a situation which would be liable to result in injury to Mr Watson if reasonable care was not exercised by the Board. It seems to me that this is almost implicit in Mr Walker's argument that to issue such a requirement expressly, was to instruct a doctor as to how to perform his duty. 40. Those limits have been found by the requirement of what has been called a "relationship of proximity" between plaintiff and defendant and by the imposition of a further requirements that the attachment of liability for harm which has occurred be "just and reasonable". Most boxers recover very quickly having been knocked down and counted out and most, in fact, are fully conscious, if somewhat dazed, by the time the count reaches ten. In the second case he reached the following conclusions of principle at p.766: "In my judgment a school which accepts a pupil assumes responsibility not only for his physical well being but also for his educational needs. We do not provide advice. In this the Judge was correct. Thereafter, when the defendant assumed responsibility for him, it accepts that the measures taken fell short of the standard reasonably to be expected. 109. The Science Delusion [PDF] [2imqhnnr9jk0] - vdoc.pub At the end of the contest one doctor remains ringside, the other should follow both contestants back to the dressing room and should at least check that both boxers are in a satisfactory condition and if not instigate any treatment that is required, preferably in the treatment room provided. 39. Sharpe v Avery [1938] 4 All E.R. The plaintiffs submitted that that which is most closely analogous is that of doctor and patient or health authority and patient. In 1991, a world title fight between Michael Watson and Chris Eubank took place in London under the BBBC Rules. 32. The Judge held that it was the duty of the Board, and of those advising it on medical matters, to be prospective in their thinking and to seek competent advice as to how a recognised danger could best be combated. Before confirming, please ensure that you have thoroughly read and verified the judgment. 127. It acts as a regulatory rule making body. To my mind it is difficult in such a situation to profess a concern for safety and to deny a duty such as I have described. If it had in place the appropriate protocols for provision of medical care, the claimants injuries would not have been so severe. It is said, rightly, that in general such professional duty of care is owed irrespective of contract and can arise even where the professional assumes to act for the plaintiff pursuant to a contract with a third party: Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd [1995] 2 AC 145; White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207. The Board encouraged and supported its boxing members in the pursuit of an activity which involved inevitable physical injury and the need for medical precautions against the consequences of such injury. Therefore in giving that advice he owes a duty to the child to exercise the skill and care of a reasonable advisory teacher.". The doctors who were actually present were not aware of the desirability of immediate resuscitation of a victim with a brain haemorrhage. 78. There is no doubt that once the relationship of doctor and patient or hospital authority and admitted patient exists, the doctor or the hospital owe a duty to take reasonable care to effect a cure, not merely to prevent further harm. In my judgment there is a clear distinction between the role of the Board and the role of a fire service or the police service. 91. Mr Watson's case, in essence, was that there should have been a different regime in place - Mr Walker described it as an intensive care unit at the ringside. This involved taking precautions or giving instructions for them to be taken so that the work could be done with safety. One group of cases involved statutory duties imposed on local authorities for the purpose of protecting children from child abuse. I turn to the law. Had the Board simply given advice to all involved in professional boxing as to appropriate medical precautions, it would be strongly arguable that there was insufficient proximity between the Board and individual boxers to give rise to a duty of care. I consider that the Judge could properly have done so. For example, the relationship between the parties may be such that it is obvious that a lack of care will create a risk of harm and that as a matter of common sense and justice a duty should be imposed.. Again in most cases of the direct infliction of physical loss or injury through carelessness, it is self-evident that a civilised system of law should hold that a duty of care has been broken, whereas the infliction of financial harm may well pose a more difficult problem. In consequence this special need was not addressed, to the detriment of the child. The Board held itself out as treating the safety of boxers as of paramount importance. The judgment is attacked root and branch. Click here to remove this judgment from your profile. 15. In any event it would be quite wrong to determine the result of the individual facts of this case by formulating a principle of general policy that sporting regulatory bodies should owe no duty of care in respect of the formulation of their rules and regulations. Held: A body which had responsibility for licensing and setting conditions for the boxing matches was liable in negligence when, having assumed responsibility for the boxers medical care, the standards it set were inadequate. Lord Mustill reached the same conclusion in R v Brown [1994] 1 AC 212 at p.265, where he gave the following description of professional boxing: "For money, not recreation or personal improvement, each boxer tries to hurt the opponent more than he is hurt himself, and aims to end the contest prematurely by inflicting a brain injury serious enough to make the opponent unconscious, or temporarily by impairing his central nervous system through a blow to the midriff, or cutting his skin to a degree which would ordinarily be well within the scope of Section 20. The Board called to give evidence Mr Peter Richards, a Consultant Neuro-Surgeon with Charing Cross Hospital between 1987 and 1995. [2], The case first went to the High Court of Justice, where Kennedy, J, gave his judgment on 24 September 1999, awarding Watson around 1 million in damages. * Enter a valid Journal (must This has left him paralysed down the left side and with other physical and mental disability. 6. This argument was allied to Mr Walker's submission that the Judge should not have found that the rules should have required immediate medical attention to be given to a boxer where his physical condition led to the contest being stopped. Watson v British Board of Boxing Control: QBD 12 Oct 1999 A governing body of a sport, had a duty to insist on arrangements for sporting events, held under its aegis, to ensure proper access to medical aid. Of these, the vast majority were semi-professional. 14. In Cassidy v Ministry of Health [1951] 2 K.B. I am in no doubt that the Judge's decision broke new ground in the law of negligence. Its experience, contacts and resources exceed his own. 3. It shall be adequately lit, have an examination couch and possess hot and cold running water. They also argued that it was not fair, just and reasonable that the PFA should be liable to negligence. His comment that "it would only have added three minutes or so if he had waited until he was summoned" suggests to the contrary. That argument was rejected. The Board's authority is essentially based upon the consent of the boxing world. It was accepted that, if the survey had been negligent the loss of the cargo was a foreseeable consequence. This care was insufficient, and as such Watson was in a coma for 40 days, and spent 6 years in a wheelchair. held that, on the facts, a duty of care had existed. Cargo owners sued the classification society N.K.K. 62. He distinguished the fire and police `rescue' cases on the ground that: "This was not a case of general reliance, but specific reliance. 103. It is to make regulations imposing on others the duty to achieve these results. It was open to Mr Watson to provide, or to stipulate for the promoter to provide, additional medical precautions. Michael Alexander Watson v British Boxing Board of Control Ltd, World Because the facts of this case are so unusual, there is no category in which a duty of care has been established from which one can advance to this case by a small incremental step. 80. Asser International Sports Law Blog | Guest Blog - Mixed Martial Arts It is sometimes said that there has to be an assumption of responsibility by the person concerned. So may be an education officer performing the functions of a local education authority in regard to children with special educational needs. In Smoldon v Whitworth [1997] PIQR P133 the duty of care had been conceded in the context of a school colts game and similarly, boxing came under scrutiny in Watson v British Boxing. Dr Whiteson did not give evidence. 55. The educational psychologist was professionally qualified. Nothing that I have heard persuades me that there was any impracticality, whether in terms of manpower or in cost to the promoters, in the Board having included such a requirement in their rules. If PFA was not liable in negligence, the Plaintiff might be left without a remedy against anyone.
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