Robert Lee Uren v Corporate Leisure (UK) Limited, The
Ministry of Defence and Others - [2010] EWHC 46 (QB)
Mr Uren, an RAF employee, brought an action for damages arising
out of an accident that occurred during a health and fun day held
at RAF High Wycombe in July 2005. The event, organised by the RAF,
included games and races in the open air. The 'pool game' was in
the nature of a relay race. Team members would run up to an
inflatable rectangular pool, climb in over the side and retrieve a
piece of plastic fruit floating in the water. They would then carry
it out of the pool and deposit it in a bucket, at which point the
next team member repeated the routine.
The pool was owned by Corporate Leisure (CL), a company that
specialised in managing and providing equipment for corporate
entertainment events of the type popularised in the television
series 'It's a Knockout'. Mr Uren had observed the first heat,
whereby half the contestants had entered the pool by sliding over
the side head first, with their arms outstretched in front of them.
The rest had vaulted or scrambled over the side, landing in the
pool feet first. On Mr Uren's turn, he ran up to the side of the
pool, and launched himself over in a continuous movement head first
with his arms outstretched in front of him. He hit his head on the
bottom of the pool and broke his neck. He was rendered
tetraplegic.
Mr Uren claimed that CL and his employer, the Ministry of
Defence (MOD), were each in breach of a duty to take reasonable
care to ensure that he was safe in participating in the game. He
argued that it was reasonably foreseeable that contestants would
enter the pool head first, that serious injury could result and
therefore head first entry should have been prohibited from the
outset. Alternatively, on the game commencing and it becoming
apparent that contestants were entering head first, a ban ought to
have been imposed.
The defendants argued that the game was reasonably safe. The
judge accepted their expert evidence that the risk of serious
injury was very small:
"The contestants were told to take care on entering the
pool. It was obvious that they should not attempt to dive in
without sliding over the side. In sliding over the side they would
be moving essentially horizontally and the friction would slow the
pace of entry. At that point the contestants would be about a metre
above the ground and by entering with arms outstretched to the
front, they could be expected to be able to control the impact with
the bottom of the pool - a lining resting on a grassed playing
field."
He did not consider the defendants to be in breach of their
common law duty of care owed to Mr Uren. He commented
"Enjoyable competitive activities are an important and
beneficial part of the life of very many people who are fit enough
to participate in them. This is especially true in the case of
service personnel… This means that a balance has to be struck
between the level of risk involved and the benefit the activity
confers on the participants and thereby on society generally. The
pool game was an enjoyable game, in part because of the physical
challenges it posed contestants. The risk of serious injury was
small. In my judgment, neither CL nor the MOD was obliged to neuter
the game of much of its enjoyable challenge by prohibiting head
first entry."
The decision was reached despite the judge's criticism of the
MOD's risk assessment. He stated that the issue was not whether
adequate risk assessments had been undertaken, but whether the
defendants took reasonable measures to ensure the game was safe,
which in his opinion they had.
This is another useful commonsense decision in cases where
accidents occur in the course of sporting activities. The court
recognised the need to maintain a balance between the risks
involved in sporting activities and the public interest in allowing
sport to be enjoyable. Providers and employers will, however, still
require to ensure that the level of risk involved in any such
activity is acceptable - and commensurate with the level of
fun.
Contributed by Daniela Fusi