Assault Cases in Sport

Causing intentional injury

Explanation of "Assault" and "Battery":

Assault - threat of violence
Battery - trespass to person (actual infliction of injury)

The Tort of Assault and Battery involves:

the direct application of force by one person on another person
no consent by the person who was hit
injury as a result

Consent is implied to those things which are inherent in the sport. Participants are generally deemed to not consent to behaviour outside the laws of the game. Claims of foul play being a "normal" part of the game are in most cases rejected - e.g. illegal tackles

McNamara v Duncan, 1971 (Civil Case)

In this case involving Australian Rules Football, a player sued a member of the opposing team
Evidence showed that the defendant struck the plaintiff on the head with an elbow, causing serious injury
The defendant claimed that because foul play was common to the game of Australian Football the injured player had consented to this behaviour.
The defence was rejected and damages were awarded.

R. v Johnson, 1986 (Criminal Case)

In 1986 a rugby player (Johnson) was convicted of wounding another player in the game and served six months’ imprisonment. Johnson was legitimately tackled and in the struggle for the ball, bit off part off another player’s earlobe (R v Johnson (1986) 8 Cr App 12).