As Mr Morris accepted, by reason of its control over boxing 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. .Cited Calvert v William Hill Credit Ltd ChD 12-Mar-2008 The claimant said that the defendant bookmakers had been negligent in allowing him to continue betting when they should have known that he was acting under an addiction. In my judgment, the same duty applies to any other person possessed of special skills, such as a social worker. B. 128. 22. The witness best placed to deal with the consideration, if any, given to this matter would have been Mr Whiteson. Administrative, Personal Injury, Negligence, Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.135634. He had particular experience of brain injuries caused by sporting activities. It is clear on the authorities that the duty to take reasonable care to prevent further harm and to effect a cure is founded on the acceptance of the patient as a patient, which carries with it an implicit undertaking to care for the patient's needs. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control (2001 . He further alleged that had he received that treatment, he would not have sustained permanent brain damage. 3. The Judge held that on these facts Mr Watson was entitled to recover for his injuries in full, relying on the authorities of McGhee v The National Coal Board [1973] 1 WLR 1; Wiltshire v Essex A.H.A. 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. 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. "The fact that it was a person who foreseeably would suffer further injuries by a delay in providing an ambulance, when there was no reason why it should not be provided, is important in establishing the necessary proximity and thus duty of care in this case. The board, however, went far beyond this. 9. Watson was injured during a fight in 1991 The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) faces a financial crisis after losing its court battle with Michael Watson. My reaction is the same as that of Buxton L.J. held that, on the facts, a duty of care had existed. Enhance your digital presence and reach by creating a Casemine profile. 5. 2. The Board, however, went far beyond this. I do not find this surprising. The facilities include a scheme which enables members to construct and fly their own light aircraft. The doctors required by the rules to be present at a contest had to be doctors who had been approved by the Board. Contracts between boxer and manager and boxer and promoter have to be in standard form, providing expressly that the parties will observe the Board's rules. See Hedley Byrne & Co. Ltd. v Heller & Partners Ltd [1964] AC 465 and Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd [1995] 2 AC 145. 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. The Board is non-profit making. I am in no doubt that the Judge's decision broke new ground in the law of negligence. Once you create your profile, you will be able to: Claim the judgments where you have appeared by linking them directly to your profile and maintain a record of your body of work. I shall have to examine the facts and reasoning in Perrett in due course, for Mr Mackay, QC, for Mr Watson has relied upon it as providing a close analogy with the present case. * The Board failed to require a medical examination of Mr Watson immediately following the conclusion of the contest. Likewise, in Watson v British Boxing Board of Control [2001] QB 1134 the defendant was found to owe a duty of care to the Plaintiff boxer who had suffered more significant injury b.. Request a trial to view additional results 1 firm's commentaries Heading The Ball: Part Of The Game Or An Industrial Disease United Kingdom Mondaq UK 99. 92. QUIZ. Next Mr. Walker argued that if the Board had made its Rules pursuant to a statutory power it would be tolerably clear that it could not be held liable in negligence in relation to the manner in which it chose to exercise its discretion. Thus the necessary `proximity' was not made out. He sued the Board because they were in charge of safety arrangements at professional boxing matches, and evidence showed that if they had made immediate medical . Mr Watson was put on a stretcher, which was placed on a trolley and wheeled towards the ambulance. It acts as a regulatory rule making body. at p.262 which I have set out above. Since 1929 the Board has been and continues to be the sole controlling body regulating professional boxing in the United Kingdom. There was no contract between the parties, but boxers had to fight under the Board's rules. The owner of the aircraft took off, with the Plaintiff onboard as a passenger. This seems to me to be, on its face, an example par excellence of a situation where the law will regard the professional as owing a duty of care to a third party as well as his own employer.". 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. In each case it was alleged that the professional in question negligently failed to diagnose dyslexia. Licence holders are also required to comply with the Board's policy in respect of matters not dealt with by specific rules. . These make it necessary: i) to identify the principles which are relied upon as giving rise to a duty of care in this case. A book of rules and regulations 58 pages in length provides, in detail, for the manner in which professional boxing is to be carried on. 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. [3] Kennedy held that there was a "sufficient nexus" between Watson and the BBBC to create a duty of care, and that Watson's consent to the fight (which would normally be considered a defence of volenti non fit injuria) was not a consent to the inadequate safety measures. Thus boxers, promoters, managers, referees, time-keepers, trainers, seconds, masters of ceremonies, match-makers, agents for overseas boxers, ringmasters and whips all have to be licensed by the Board to perform their particular functions and become, when granted their licences, members of the Board. Professor Teasdale had some reservations about the effectiveness of some of this, but he accepted that this was standard practice. The educational psychologist was professionally qualified. * the treatment actually provided to Mr Watson. In other words, he could have been resuscitated on site and then transferred for more specific care. 49. i) that it owed no duty of care to Mr Watson; ii) that if it owed the duty alleged, it committed no breach; and. Thereafter the effect of delay was less important, although brain damage occurred cumulatively until death. In fact the Board had required a third doctor to be present and that an ambulance should be in attendance. The police have been held to owe no duty to respond to a 999 call or, having done so, to exercise reasonable care to prevent a burglary Alexandrou v. Oxford [1993] 4 All ER 328 [1994] 4 All ER 328. The Board, however, arrogates to itself the task of determining what medical facilities will be provided at a contest by (i) requiring the boxer and the promoter to contract on terms under which the Board's Rules will apply and (ii) making provision in those Rules for the medical facilities and assistance to be provided to care for the boxer in the event of injury. So the tortious damage may be seen as consecutive to, and aggravating, that which was inevitable. On the facts of the present case the Claimant suffered only a minor primary injury. The members of the Board are those who are involved in professional boxing. They have not succeeded. It is a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that personal injuries already sustained are properly treated. Another example was a general direction given, at about the same time, that an ambulance and crew should be in attendance at a boxing contest. It is, however, clear that the test is an objective one: Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd., [1995] 2 AC 145, 181. depending upon the court's attitude to the case before it. That case involved four further claims by children against local education authorities for, among other things, negligently failing to address their special educational needs. held at p.557: "Is this a case in which it can be said that the plaintiff was closely and directly affected by the acts of the architect as to have been reasonably in his contemplation when he was directing his mind to the acts or omissions which are called into question? The duty of the Board and of those advising it on medical matters, was to be prospective in their thinking and seek competent advice as to how a recognised danger could be combated. had not been responsible for the claimant's asthma but it had caused the respiratory arrest and to this extent the L.A.S was the author of additional damage.". Mr Watson was the third boxer on whom Mr Hamlyn had operated for similar injuries. The Board contends:-. If his condition was satisfactory, he could have been transferred for resuscitation to hospital, there have his condition stabilised and thereafter be transferred to a Neurosurgical Unit for more definitive investigation and treatment. Many sports involve a risk of physical injury to the participants. 118. The Plaintiffs were children with dyslexia. However, should this not be so, then the boxer's gumshield should be removed, an adequate airway established and the boxer put on his left side so that should he fit or vomit he will not obstruct his airway. Test. In these circumstances the task is to look at the circumstances in which specific factors have given rise to the duty of care and to consider whether, on the facts of this case, they should also give rise to such a duty. Should the principles, as derived from the established cases, lead to a finding of a duty of care in this case? 25Watson v British Board of Boxing Control Ltd [2001] QB 113419, 20 it was claimed that had Watson received immediate resuscitation he would not have been as badly brain damaged, the Court agreed saying that because the Board were in sole charge of safety arrangements there was sufficient proximity for the board of control to owe a duty of care The medical room should be situated in close proximity to the boxer's dressing rooms and be reasonable accessible to and from the ring. A doctor, an accountant and an engineer are plainly such a person. 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". The present case can only be decided on the basis of an intense and particular focus on all its distinctive features, and then applying established legal principles to it.". 119. change. The ambulance took him to North Middlesex Hospital, which was less than a mile away. Michael Watson suffered a near-fatal brain injury and spent 40 days in a coma after boxing against Chris Eubank, who still struggles to comprehend what happened on that fateful night 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. Therefore in giving that advice he owes a duty to the child to exercise the skill and care of a reasonable advisory teacher.". The third category is of particular importance in the context of this action. contains alphabet). This was drawn to the attention of the duty Petty Officer, who organised a stretcher, had the rating carried to his cabin and placed on his bunk in the recovery position, in a coma. Boxing members of the Board, including Mr Watson, could reasonably rely upon the Board to look after their safety. If authority is needed for this approach, it is to be found in the Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Perrett v Collins [1998] 2 LL.L.Rep. He held that anyone with the appropriate expertise would have advised the adoption of such a system. In order that, when complete, the aircraft can obtain first a provisional and then a full certificate of airworthiness, the assembly of the aircraft has to be supervised and checked by an inspector. He won a historic High Court case in Sept 1999, raising questions about the future of the professional sport in the UK. At the third stage, questions of `proximity' and of what is `fair, just and reasonable' have to be considered. 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. c) The rule that if a fight is stopped by the referee or a boxer is counted out, the boxer's licence is suspended for at least 28 days and until the boxer is certified fit to box by a doctor. ii) The Board assumed responsibility for determining the details of the medical care and facilities which would be provided by way of immediate treatment of those who received personal injuries while taking part in the activity. In an opinion read by Phillips MR, the court upheld Kennedy's decision, noting that it "broke new ground". There is a general reliance by the public on the fire service and the police to reduce those risks. Mr Watson's injuries were not, however, without precedent. 133. In these circumstances there is no close proximity between the services and the general public. In practice the Area Secretary would select the medical officers for a particular contest, albeit that the promoter would pay them. In these circumstances the Board should owe no greater duty of care than that imposed on a rescuer, that is a duty to exercise reasonable care not to make the situation worse, but no duty to reduce the damage that would have occurred in any event had the rescuer not intervened - see Capital and Counties plc v. Hampshire County Council. Later in the judgment the Judge suggested, by implication, that the Board's rules should have included a requirement that a boxer who was knocked out, or seemed unfit to defend himself, should be immediately seen by a doctor. Watson v British Boxing Board, above Michael v South Wales Police, above ABC v St George's Healthcare NHS Trust . As for the argument that the local authorities were vicariously liable for negligence on the part of those giving them advice, Lord Browne-Wilkinson held at pp.752-3: "The claim based on vicarious liability is attractive and simple. This sequence can result in cumulative damage to the brain, leading sooner or later to death. Without it, the system of personal injury compensation would not have survived. 293.". A press release issued in the 1980's', stated: "In the last 20 years, the medical protection of British professional boxers has become the Board's main raison d' trethrough its Medical Committee set up in 1950, it has provided British professional boxing with an unrivalled set of medical safety checks and balances.". This involves intubation, or the insertion of an endotracheal tube. Flashcards. In this case the following matters are particularly material: 1. The essence of Mr Watson's case is that there should have been a system under which such equipment would not merely be available, but used immediately in the event of a brain injury. The referee stopped the fight in the final round when Watson appeared to be unable to defend himself. Finally I return to Perrett v. Collins, the only case referred to by Ian Kennedy J. when considering the question of duty of care. If it was held liable it might withdraw from its work, or have to pass on the cost of increased insurance to the detriment of small aircraft operators. It is not so much that responsibility is assumed as that it is recognised or imposed by the law.". 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. The numbers of those to whom the duty is alleged to be owed in the present case are not incompatible with the requirements of proximity. Learn. Thereafter, when the defendant assumed responsibility for him, it accepts that the measures taken fell short of the standard reasonably to be expected.

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