Actions against headmasters of public schools in respect of accidents
sustained by their pupils are always regrettable, except in the singularly rare cases where there has been flagrant negligence. The Court of Appeal last week, by the unanimous findings of its three judges, gave a decision which should do a good deal to discourage such litigation. The case was unusual. On a Saturday afternoon—which was a holiday—some twenty boys from a well-known school in a Midland county had volunteered to help a farmer by weeding beetroots. Ragging developed, and one boy threw a clod at another but hit a third in the eye, injuring it so severely that Mr. Justice Cassels awarded the boy and his father over kfloo against the head- master on the ground of the latter's negligence. In reversing this judgement the Court of Appeal gave a decisive and im- portant ruling—unfortunately too long to reproduce here—on the limits of a headmaster's liability. He clearly cannot be responsible for every act of every boy through every hour of every day.
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