Legal Case Summary
Caldwell v Maguire [2001] EWCA Civ 1054
TORT – NEGLIGENCE – BREACH OF DUTY- SPORTS
Facts
The claimant was a professional jockey. He was seriously injured after two other jockeys left insufficient room for a third rider on the inside of a left-hand bend. The race stewards found both jockeys guilty of careless riding and suspended them for three days. The claimant sued the pair in the tort of negligence.
Issues
Establishing negligence involves showing that the defendant owed the claimant a duty of care, which they breached in a manner that caused the claimant recoverable harm. To establish breach, the claimant must show that the defendant failed to act as a reasonable person would in their position: that they failed to meet the standard of care. The issue was the threshold of the standard of care in professional sporting events.
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Decision/Outcome
The Court of Appeal dismissed Caldwell’s appeal. The stewards’ finding did not establish a breach of the duty of care.
They affirmed the following principles set out by the first-instance judge:
- Contestants in a lawful sporting contest each owe each other a duty of care;
- The duty is to exercise the care which is objectively reasonable in the circumstances to avoid causing injury;
- The relevant circumstances are those properly attendant on the event, including its purpose, demands, rules and customs, inherent dangers and the standard reasonably expected of contestants;
- The relevant circumstances in many sports will make the threshold for liability quite high, meaning that a mere error of judgement or skill will not suffice. It may be hard to prove breach without evidence of reckless disregard for the claimant’s safety.
In this case the stressful, fast-paced nature of the race and the fact that its object is to compete for the best place meant that the threshold required to establish breach was high, and was not met by the defendants’ conduct.
Reported citation: [2002] PIQR P6
Source: Full judgment
