Teachers compensation claim case thrown out
It has been revealed that a teacher who filed a work accident claim has had his case thrown out.
The employee sued school chiefs after he was knocked over and received personal injury by an 11-year-old pupil.
However, he has since lost his case, after the judge ruled that it was simply an ‘unfortunate accident.’
As a result of the injury the 63-year-old teacher had to take a year off work with a bad shoulder, after he was bundled to the floor in a classroom.
He filed his case against East Sussex County Council, alleging the authority performed professional negligence because they failed to warn him that the pupil was disruptive.
He was originally seeking £91,000 in his compensation claim. He later dropped the amount to £20,000 but will now receive no award settlement and instead faces huge legal bills.
Case dismissed
The Judge, sitting at Hastings County Court, ruled: “I do find that this was an unfortunate accident. I cannot be satisfied that the county council could have foreseen that this could have occurred. For these reasons, the case is dismissed.”
The man, from Hastings, who is still working as a supply maths and science teacher for East Sussex, told the court he had stepped in to protect a boy who was being chased by a much larger pupil at Hillcrest School in Hastings in February 2005.
He said he was trying to close a fire door and block the bigger pupil's path but the boy ran into his extended arm and knocked him flying.
He claimed the secondary school had failed in its duty to warn him the “unruly” pupil had just returned from a suspension for bullying. Despite this, the council accused the teacher of breaching health and safety rules by getting involved at all.
Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, welcomed the judge’s ruling as a “victory for common sense” but said the case should never have reached the courts.
He furthered: “This case should never have got off the ground in the first place. Obviously it was an unfortunate incident, but this is a classic example of the compensation culture getting totally out of hand.
“It is good news for taxpayers that the case has been thrown out on the grounds of fundamental common sense, but it is a great shame it went on for so long.”
A person from the authority, said the teacher’s actions did not reflect safety standards: “His actions were very dangerous, He put himself in harm's way. It appears to be a situation where the pupils were at play and there was a lack of teacher control to get the pupils to calm down and act appropriately. Neither pupil was damaging property nor causing harm to themselves or others.”
She said that all workers were informed of the school's ‘non-intervention’ policy which banned any physical contact with pupils unless it was immediately necessary to prevent an injury or damage to property.Updated on 3/23/2010