Party injury case leaves parents open to damages

THEY are already a stressful annual event, dreaded by parents, but a recent court case could send shivers down the spine of those planning children’s parties.

A crazy golf birthday party that ended with a 10-yearold blinding his nine-yearold friend with a “professional swing” has left his mother facing a sixfigure compensation bill.

The birthday boy was annoyed he could not pot the ball when he took a “big swing like a professional golfer” with the metal club on an amusement park crazy golf course, the High Court in Birmingham heard.

The club struck his nineyear-old school friend in the face, causing an injury that left him blind in his left eye, the court was told. Now a judge has ruled that the 10-year-old’s mother must bear financial responsibility.

Ordering the mother to pay damages to the injured boy – S – the judge said she “negligently” failed to tell her son not to swing the club too high.

‘J required firm handling because he could be boisterous. His mother … failed to provide that’

J and two of his school friends were celebrating his birthday at the Bosworth Water Park, near Nuneaton, when the incident happened in 2013.

His mother was close by the crazy golf course with the family dog, but the first she knew of the accident was when she heard the other boy scream, the court heard.

A judge at Leicester County Court found last year that, although J was sometimes impulsive, he was “not a dangerous child”.

Overturning that ruling, Mrs Justice Whipple said: “J required firm handling because he could be boisterous and impetuous. His mother knew this. The failure to provide this, in the form of clear instruction, was a negligent failure by J’s mother”.

The water park’s managers, the Bosworth Water Trust, were also found liable to compensate S for his injuries. The crazy golf course was “aimed at children” and there should have been a sign warning golfers against raising their clubs too high, the ruling said.