Ms Anderson was successful in her action for damages for personal injuries against Mt Isa Basketball Association Inc ("Association") arising from a fall which she suffered whilst refereeing a basketball game in October 1991. Ms Anderson war awarded $80.000 due to the Association’s failure to warn her of the dangers of running backwards.
Facts
MS Anderson commenced playing basketball in Mt Isa’s four-month season, played on concrete courts. The basketball competition was organised by the Association and the Association supplied all referees for the games. There was an insufficient number of referees and the Association requested players t o also act as referees MS Anderson was one of a number of players who volunteered to referee and from that time on she refereed at least one game the night on which she played.
The volunteer referees were paid a fee of $4 per game. Ms Anderson was given some sheets of paper containing the basic rules of the game. She also purchased a book about basketball and the rules in order to familiarise herself with the game as thoroughly as she could. MS Anderson had refereed about 12 games without tuition by the time of the accident.
Two referees are required for each game of basketball. Because of her inexperience MS Anderson war also paired with an experienced referee. Some of the experienced referees from time to time imparted hints to her about refereeing, On the night in question, she was refereeing a women’s B grade game. It was much faster than any other of the previous games that she had refereed in the lower grades. Her co-referee that night was a very experienced referee.
Shortly before the accident, the game was at one end of the court. The other referee was beside the base line at that end and Ms Anderson was near the middle of the court. The ball was then thrown some distance toward her end of the court so she commenced to run backwards whilst keeping here eyes on the play in order to position herself at the base line at the end of the court. It was necessary for a referee whilst repositioning herself (as Ms Anderson was doing) to keep here attention on the play, i.e. on the ball. She fell while running backwards.
Evidence
Experienced basketball referees were called as witnesses. The gave evidence that they were wither told or it was discussed at referee courses that running backwards was a dangerous practice, and it was preferable practice to skip sideways in order to keep an eye on the ball. The experienced referees agreed that had there been referee-training courses in respect of safety, referees would have been instructed about matters of this kind. They also agreed that there was no difficulty in simply telling new referees such as Ms Anderson that running backwards was dangerous and that the preferable practice was to skip sideways.
Decision
The relationship between Ms Anderson and the Association gave rise to a duty of care in that the Association was required to take reasonable care to avoid a foreseeable injury to its referees.
Having regard to the inexperience of Ms Anderson and her obligation to concentrate her attention on the play whilst repositioning herself, a reasonable person in the position and with the knowledge of the Association, would have provided some instruction along the lines that the experienced referees gave in evidence. It followed that the Association in the circumstances was negligent in failing to give instruction and that the negligence caused Ms Anderson’s injuries. The court awarded the amount of $80,000 with costs to Ms Anderson.