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Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - dawn hoskins (12th May 2008 - 17:20:05) Think again! The parents of a boy injured on a bouncy castle (when another child accidentally kicked him) have successfully claimed against the parents who hired it for their Childs birthday party. The damages are likely to exceed £1m as it was a serious injury, but the point to take away is that if you don’t supervise your ‘pool party’ or your ‘bouncy castle party’, you will be strictly liable for any injuries that result. Just a note of caution as the summer season approaches……

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - nikki (12th May 2008 - 20:01:12) Yes, I saw this article in the news. I've always used either treetops in alton or the taro centre in petersfield as hosts for the kids parties. Obviously costs more this way but it's so much easier, no mess at home and no issues with liability insurance.

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - Sue w (13th May 2008 - 09:56:10) I was shocked at the situation being taken so far, and such high amounts for damages. What is our world comming too! Yes, everyone should take care of others children, as you would your own, but accidents will happen, who is to say that even if they had been watching, something like that would not have happened anyway. My boys were always running, jumping 'playing', with the enivitable bump, break, and cut head, from doing WWF wrestling on my bed - heaven forbid the youngest could sue me or his brother for damages and being un-supervised!!

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - dawn hoskins (13th May 2008 - 11:17:07) Hi Sue The damages reflect the brain injury and the future care that will be needed. But the point you raise is the worrying issue; accidents happen – thy happen whether or not we are supervising – especially when dealing with children who can be unpredictable at the best of times and are not mentally capable of assessing risk to themselves or others. In the bouncy castle case, an older child (15) was doing a summersault and kicked another child in the attempt. The problem is, would any number of adults standing in front of the bouncy castle have prevented this? I think not. The judge thought that there had been negligence on two counts: -- the first that there was inadequate supervision and -- the second that a mixture of age ranges were on the bouncy castle at the time. Well, I don’t think the honourable judge could ever have hosted a party before – I’m afraid children of ALL ages think bouncing is fun and to limit bouncing by age range is quite frankly ridiculous and not feasible when dealing with sneaky (and determined) children. The point to take away from this is that regardless of fault, you WILL BE liable if any parent, of any child, should decide to sue you for an accident that happened on your property, which has caused injury to their offspring. The issue of course turns on whether we accept the old phrase ‘shit happens’ and deal with it - or whether we as a society wish to turn into litigious monsters and sue for everything – every trip or fall or collision regardless of fault or intention. An interesting and notable contrast can be drawn with cases of reckless or dangerous driving were the drivers are purely to blame for their own choice of actions - which maim and kills hundreds. The penalty they receive……….. paltry by comparison.

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - ellen (13th May 2008 - 14:31:17) Hi Dawn If ever you may have an interest in writing something for the Connector, as you write so well..please let me know on info@ctconnector.co.uk. I am afraid I cant offer you payment but would welcome anyone wanting to write about local issues. Ellen

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - Sue w (13th May 2008 - 20:52:39) Dawn, You obviously have connections with Law/Firm - it would seem here there is a case for families claiming compensation from negligence - could our Police and Portuguese Police sue for costs in finding Madeline, after parents clearly were negligent in their responsibilities??

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - dawn (14th May 2008 - 14:30:50) Wow! That would be an incredibly harsh thing to do! The police have a duty to investigate crime full stop. That is their job. Crime per se always involves some sort of negligent/illegal behaviour. Once a crime is reported, they will investigate and the CPS will take action against criminals who will pay damages or go to prison etc. etc. The police are remunerated by the government (at tax payer’s expense of course) for their work - as it is in the public interests for them to do so. They are not able to sue criminals for the time and costs spent trying to catch them although ill gotten gains can be confiscated by the Crown for victim support ect. If an action was to be taken against the McCains then it would be by child protection services – the ultimate sanction being that they lose custody over their other children. Sadly, being a bad parent is not a crime. Can you imagine how may children would be in the care of the state if that were the case!!! On a general note: We all make mistakes as parents and no one gets it right all the time. I am not saying that I condone their actions in any way, but sometimes it is easy to fall into a trap of following the crowd and doing as others do. Let us not forget that everyone in the ‘Tapas 9’ group had left their children in their apartment rooms unattended. My Mum told me that parenting was all about learning from your mistakes……Obviously the McCains will not have that luxury.

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - Sue (14th May 2008 - 19:14:22) Thanks for that Dawn. Perhaps this may have seemed harsh, but so would you or I having to stump up monies for accidents that you would never have expected. I am sure all those having a good night out and any others who have ever left kids, would never have expected it to of happened - neither would the parents of the bouncy castle incident. If you are going to apply the rule to general 'pool' parties, bouncy castles or heaven forbid 'blind mans buff' incidents, then where does it leave us. More insular, children much more restricted on where they play, who with and with what? It is a very sad state of things for parents and kids alike.

Re: Thinking of having a bouncy castle for your summer party? - Dawn Hoskins (1st Aug 2008 - 09:33:23) After a lengthy appeal, this ruling has now been overturned. Thank goodness for common sense.

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