The Judge referred (Transcript p.17) to the question of whether to attach a duty of care to the facts of the present case would be an acceptable incremental extension of established liabilities, or too long a step. a) A requirement that a boxer must be medically examined before being granted a licence, together with a list of medical conditions that preclude the grant of a licence. In fact the Board had required a third doctor to be present and that an ambulance should be in attendance. The doctors should decide between them who will remain ringside and who will undertake the emergency treatment should the need arise. There are many instances of this. In other words, he could have been resuscitated on site and then transferred for more specific care. The local council had waived a requirement that the balustrade meet the . 34. 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. 91. 7. The Plaintiffs were children with dyslexia. 101. The owner of the aircraft took off, with the Plaintiff onboard as a passenger. 41. The BBBC had a series of rules on the medical coverage needed for boxing matches, which required two doctors to be present at all times. He distinguished the fire and police `rescue' cases on the ground that: "This was not a case of general reliance, but specific reliance. In this case the following matters are particularly material: 1. 112. These facts produced a relationship of close proximity between the Board and those of its members who were professional boxers. 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. The Board had given notice that he would be called as a witness and submitted the witness statement from him. Therefore, it is said, it is nothing to the point that the social workers and psychiatrist only came into contact with the plaintiffs pursuant to contracts or arrangements made between the professionals and the local authority for the purpose of the discharge by the local authority of its statutory duties. The Judge summarised his findings on the facts as follows:-. This is an argument which might appeal to boxing enthusiasts, but would not be accepted by the British Medical Association. This Court held that the Ministry of Defence had been under no duty of care to prevent the deceased from abusing alcohol to the extent that he did. By clicking on this tab, you are expressly stating that you were one of the attorneys appearing in this matter. The board, however, went far beyond this. The article examines this regulatory framework; where traditional attitudes about the social desirability of sport and acceptance of harm support an autonomous self-regulatory approach, often insulated from the full application of the criminal law. Each case involved the performance by the local authority of duties imposed under statute for the benefit of children. The Board, however, went far beyond this. In my judgement in the present cases, the social workers and the psychiatrist did not, by accepting the instructions of the local authority, assume any general professional duty of care to the plaintiff children. Had the Board said nothing, it might not be liable, but once it gave advice by setting rules, it came to be responsible. 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. 59. 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. 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. PFA was not a commercial undertaking. Indirect Influence on the Occurrence of Injury. This passage was approved by Lord Steyn when the case reached the House of Lords [1996] AC 211 at 235. He answered that it took something like the injury to Mr Watson to make the Committee think of changing the practice. The evidence of the expert witnesses called on behalf of Mr Watson was that the first ten minutes after loss of consciousness were critical. Herbert Smith, London. We do not provide advice. 1 result for "watson v british boxing board of control 2001" hide this ad. At this meeting Mr Hamlyn expressed the view that it was vital that at the ringside there should be the right doctors with the right equipment. It would only have added three minutes or so if he had waited until he was summoned. This increases the oxygen in the blood and reduces the level of carbon dioxide. In 1991, a world title fight between Michael Watson and Chris Eubank took place in London under the BBBC Rules. The history of the Board can be traced back to the middle of the nineteenth century, but the Board itself was constituted as an unincorporated association in 1929. 123. Mr Watson collapsed unconscious within a minute or so of this. Despite this statement, Ian Kennedy J. suggested that where there was a potential for physical injury there was no need to go beyond the test of foreseeability in deciding whether a duty of care existed, relying on Perrett v. Collins [1998] 255. Test. I have already indicated that I do not accept the basis of the challenge of the Judge's finding that the protocol in place ought to have included a requirement for a doctor to attend immediately where a fight was stopped because a boxer could no longer defend himself. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it. Mr Watson suffered such an injury when he was knocked down in the eleventh round. deprecated the introduction of tests such as `proximity' and `fair just and reasonable' in a situation where it was reasonably foreseeable that a failure to exercise reasonable care would cause personal injury: "They also illustrate the dangers of substituting for clear criteria, criteria which are incapable of precise definition and involve what can only be described as an element of subjective assessment by the Court: such ultimately subjective assessments tend inevitably to lead to uncertainty and anomaly which can be avoided by a more principled approach". 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. In the final round, Watson lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, arriving there nearly half an hour after the end of the fight and received resuscitation treatment. 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. He did not, however, identify any obvious stepping stones to his decision. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control QB 1134 was a case of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales that established an exception to the defence of consent to trespass to the person and an extension of the duty of care expected in cases of negligence. By this time, however, he had sustained serious brain damage. 3. Watson & British Boxing Board Of Control Ltd & Anor IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE Case No: QBENF1999/1137/A2 COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION) ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION (THE HON MR JUSTICE IAN KENNEDY) Tuesday 19th December 2000 THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS LORD JUSTICE MAY LORD JUSTICE LAWS Respondent/Claimant A little later he said "As Chief Medical Officer, my approach has always been that preventative controls are the key to making a physically hazardous sport as safe as possibleour interest in preventative controls covers the whole gamut of professional boxing.". A Respondent's Notice was served contending that the Judge could and should have drawn an adverse inference from his failure to give evidence. 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. The ordinary test of reasonable skill and care is the correct one to apply. Any such inspector has to be approved by the association". Thereafter, when the defendant assumed responsibility for him, it accepts that the measures taken fell short of the standard reasonably to be expected. The Board's Grounds of Appeal argued that in making policy decisions, the Board ought not to be held to be negligent unless such decisions were found to be wholly irrational. The Board held itself out as treating the safety of boxers as of paramount importance. (Rules 8.5 and 8.6). Without it, the system of personal injury compensation would not have survived. Many sports involve a risk of physical injury to the participants. Nor has it been a requirement that the defendant should inflict the injury upon the plaintiff. 3.10 The promoter shall procure that at all promotions a stretcher is available for use near the ring. 57. In my judgment there is a difference in principle between making Rules and giving advice, but it is not one which assists the Board. The rise in pressure inside the skull caused by the haematoma results in distortion of the brain. 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. Medical knowledge does not enable one to say what, on the balance of probabilities, would have been the outcome if the protocol had been in place and followed. "The Board does not create the danger. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control: Negligent Rule-Making in the Court of Appeal. 30. This is a further factor which tends to establish the proximity necessary for a duty of care. The doctor does not, by examining the applicant, come under any general duty of medical care to the applicant. The time was now 23.08. The contest was sponsored not by the Board, but by the World Boxing Organisation (WBO). Where a patient is brought unconscious to hospital as a result of intra-cranial bleeding, the practice is first to apply a process described as resuscitation or stabilisation. The Board next drew attention to evidence that a member of the public having sustained brain damage in a road accident would not expect to receive from the ambulance attending the scene the resuscitation service which the Judge held should have been available at the ringside. 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. 98. In particular, the Board controlled the medical assistance that would be provided. These make it necessary: i) to identify the principles which are relied upon as giving rise to a duty of care in this case. I can summarise the position as follows. 86. 5. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The purpose of his assessment was to enable him to give expert advice to the education authority about the child. Without so doing, however, the Judge concluded that for some reason no thought was given to the practicality of introducing at the ringside what he found had been a standard response, where the presence of sub-dural bleeding was known or suspected, since at least 1980. 81. 78. Mr Watson's injuries were not, however, without precedent. He contended that they were in breach of this duty with the consequence that he did not receive the immediate medical attention at the ringside that his condition required. His answer was that he was sure that these things were discussed but he could not remember. I turn to the distinctive features of this case. 39. 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. Enhance your digital presence and reach by creating a Casemine profile. First he submitted that the Board exercises a public function which it has assumed for the public good. Any loss of consciousness was short lived - he regained his feet and walked to his corner. 108. b) The rule that a Licence may be suspended or withdrawn if, in the opinion of the Board or an Area Council, the licence-holder is not medically fit to box (Rule 4.9(b)(I)). In 1991 its income was some 314,000 of which some 51,000 represented licence and application fees and about 224,000 `tournament tax', which I understand to represent a small percentage of the takings at boxing tournaments. The witness best placed to deal with the consideration, if any, given to this matter would have been Mr Whiteson. 8. As a result of the delay the patient sustained brain damage. In contrast the injuries which are sustained by professional boxers are the foreseeable, indeed inevitable, consequence of an activity which the Board sponsors, encourages and controls. "There is always a risk, and the pool from which professional boxers tend to be recruited is unlikely to be one with an innate or well-informed concern about safety, and one may ask why should the individual boxer not rely on the Board's arrangements? The phrase means simply that the law recognises that there is a duty of care. In its statutory context the ambulance service is more properly described as part of the National Health Service than as a rescue service. 2. The Judge was impressed with the fact that, even then, resuscitation would have been commenced at least twenty and probably thirty minutes before in fact it was. 89. In Barrett v. Ministry of Defence [1995] 1 WLR a naval rating drank himself into a state of insensibility at the Royal Navy Air Station where he was serving. The Board's authority is essentially based upon the consent of the boxing world. Thus in Capital and Counties v. Hampshire this Court held that a fire brigade was under no common law duty to answer a call for help or, having done so, to exercise reasonable skill and care to extinguish the fire. Once this proximity exists, it ceases to be material what form the unreasonable conduct takes. He gave evidence that the WBO imposed no medical requirements in respect of the fight and that in these circumstances, the ordinary Board rules and policy would and did apply. If so, it is misguided. Later, after referring to Lord Bridge's speech in Caparo at p.261, he said: "Thus when a case fits into a category where the existence of a duty of care and a potential liability in the tort of negligence has already been recognised, the more elusive criteria to which Lord Bridge referred for dealing with cases that go beyond the recognised category of proximity do not arise.". It trades under the name of the "Popular Flying Association" and it appears that either its main role or one of its main roles is to run that association. 9.39.3 (added to the Rules on 25 May 1991)). Applied Barrett v Ministry of Defence CA 3-Jan-1995 The deceased was an off-duty naval airman. That regulation has been provided by the Board. In the event those same procedures could not have been begun before 23.25 at the earliest, to allow some time for an examination after the claimant's recorded time of arrival at the North Middlesex. If such head teacher gives advice to the parents, then in my judgment he must exercise the skills and care of a reasonable teacher in giving such advice. In my judgment the Judge was entitled to conclude that the standard of reasonable care required that there should be a resuscitation facility at the ringside. 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. In support of that proposition Mr. Walker relied upon X v Bedfordshire CC and Stovin v Wise [1996] AC 923. They alleged that the local authorities had provided services under which, in one case, educational psychologists and, in the other, advisory teachers provided advice to teaching staff and parents as to whether children had special educational needs. Of these, the vast majority were semi-professional. In X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council [1995] 2 AC 633 five appeals were heard together by the House of Lords because they raised, by way of preliminary issues, similar questions about the duty of care. It is sometimes said that there has to be an assumption of responsibility by the person concerned. Lord Phillips in the Court of Appeal described the case as a unique one because here, rather than . The referee stopped the fight in the final round when Watson appeared to be unable to defend himself. Dr Whiteson did not give evidence. 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. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control [2001] QB 1134 was a case of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales that established an exception to the defence of consent to trespass to the person and an extension of the duty of care expected in cases of negligence. Match. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. In theory the medical officers at a contest would be appointed and paid by the Promoter from the body of approved doctors. Again I disagree. 47. This has relevance to a number of the points discussed above. [8], "BBC Sport Poignant end to Watson's epic journey", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Watson_v_British_Boxing_Board_of_Control&oldid=1049029766, This page was last edited on 9 October 2021, at 12:23. I consider that these were proper findings on the evidence and that Mr Watson's case on breach of duty was made out. 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? A primary injury such as that described can have secondary consequences which are much more serious. On the findings of the judge it was delay which caused the further injuries. See Hedley Byrne & Co. Ltd. v Heller & Partners Ltd [1964] AC 465 and Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd [1995] 2 AC 145. It was also important to have a prior arrangement with the hospital with a neurological unit, and with that unit placed on standby. Michael Watson was injured in a boxing match supervised by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC or BBBC), which was expected . 29. But the fact that the carrying out of the retainer involves contact with and relationship with the child cannot alter the extent of the duty owed by the professionals under the retainer from the local authority. depending upon the court's attitude to the case before it. The architect, by reason of his contractual arrangement with the building owner, was charged with the duty of preparing the necessary plans and making arrangements for the manner in which the work should be done. He rejected it, holding that the standard to be expected of an ambulance dealing with every kind of medical emergency was not the same as the standard to be expected from those making provision for a particular and serious risk which was one of a limited number likely to arise. The Board accepted these recommendations and promulgated them by way of guidance. Secondly, to identify any categories of cases in which these principles This concludes my consideration of cases dealing with the assumption of responsibility to exercise reasonable care to safeguard a victim from the consequences of an existing personal injury or illness. 107. His conclusions as to duty are to be found in the following passages from his judgment. These cases were distinguished in Kent v Griffiths [2000] 2 WLR 1158. It would seem impossible to contend that the plaintiff would not be affected by the decisions and plans drawn up by the architect.". In such a case the authority running the hospital is under a duty to those whom it admits to exercise reasonable care in the way it runs it: see Gold v Essex County Council [1942] 2 K.B. (Rule 8.1). What it does do does at least reduce the dangers inherent in professional boxing. 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. Next Mr. Walker argued that the duty of care alleged was one owed for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate number of persons. "In Barnett v Chelsea & Kensington Management Committee [1969] 1 Q.B. 115. So may be an education officer performing the functions of a local education authority in regard to children with special educational needs. Thus it has been held that the prison service owes a duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent prisoners from committing suicide. 33. 53. The association exists to facilitate amateurs to enjoy facilities for flying light aircraft. 79. Mr. Walker advanced five arguments in support of the proposition that there was insufficient proximity to give rise to a duty of care on the facts of this case. The doctors required by the rules to be present at a contest had to be doctors who had been approved by the Board. Mr. Usherwood was the person who was carrying out this role in relation to Mr. Collins' assembly of this aircraft. But once the decision is taken to offer such a service, a statutory body is in general in the same position as any private individual or organisation holding itself out as offering such a service. 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. Michael Watson was a boxer who, on 21 September 1991, fought Chris Eubank under the supervision of the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), the British professional boxing governing body. I am in no doubt that the Judge's decision broke new ground in the law of negligence. 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. This decision turned, essentially, on considerations of policy in relation to the role of a classification society in the context of the complex arrangements for sharing, limiting and insuring the risks inherent in carriage of goods by sea. A defendant seeking to disturb the findings of fact of a trial Judge in relation to causation undertakes a hard task. I am left with the clear impression that the Board's medical advisers have not looked outside their personal expertise. Clearly, they look to the Board's stipulations as providing the appropriate standard. Watson v British Boxing Board of Control 2001 QB 1134 was a case of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales that established an exception to the defence of consent to trespass to the person and an extension of the duty of care expected in cases of negligence.
Laura Jane Michael, Articles W
Laura Jane Michael, Articles W