Page 10 - Misconduct a Reference for Race Officials

Acceptance of risk and warnings
Organisers are expected to take steps to minimise the risks associated with a
sporting event where reasonably practicable. This duty does not appear from
case law to extend to alerting competitors and spectators to risks which are plain
and obvious. Participants are taken to have accepted such risks and do not need
warning of them. The question will be whether a particular risk in question is one
which in all the circumstances they must be taken to have accepted.

The dangers of organising an event at a particular venue may be distinguished
from the dangers of the sport itself. A participant or spectator at a sailing or
powerboating event might reasonably assume as against the organiser that the
venue is reasonably safe even if he is taken to have accepted the inherent risks
associated with the sport.

Acceptance of these inherent risks by a participant would support the argument
that an organiser was not negligent should those risks manifest themselves.

Prevention of a desirable activity
As a consequence of the Compensation Act 2006, when considering a claim in
negligence and whether a person should have taken certain steps to avoid
breading their duty of care, a Court may have regard to whether such steps might
prevent a desirable activity from taking place at all (or in a particular way) or
discourage people from taking part in that activity. The apparent intention of the
Act is to encourage the Courts to consider the wider implications a finding of
negligence may have. This offers some comfort to organisers. In effect, the
Courts are expected to ensure that their decisions are consistent with the
continuance of desirable and well organised activities.

Claims culture
Much is made of the so called ‘compensation culture’. However, the recently
reported liability decisions, some of which are set out in Appendix 1, appear to
suggest that while there may still be a “claims culture”, the Courts are
increasingly reluctant to compensate voluntary risk takers or to impose
unreasonably high burdens on defendants.

Liability of children and their parents
Children are not immune from claims of negligence and a child may be found to
owe a duty of care in the same way as if they were an adult. That said, the age of
a child may be relevant in determining the standard of care expected of that
child. The Court of Appeal has held that the test for negligence of a child is

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