Goalpost-collapse drama unfolds

Dad takes damages claim to appeal court

A DETERMINED dad who suffered a broken jaw and smashed teeth after a set of football goalposts collapsed on him during a kick-about with his son, has taken his fight for compensation to London’s Appeal Court.

Prosthetic limb designer, Michael Richard Hall, was acting as goalkeeper in the match on the children’s playground at the Holker Estate Caravan Park, in Cark, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, when he became entangled in the net, having failed to stop a shot by his 11-year-old son, Thomas.

To Mr Hall’s horror, his struggles in the net brought the metal goalposts crashing down onto his face, breaking his jaw, chipping his nose bone and shattering his upper teeth.

Mr Hall, now 45, of Oldham, sued the managers of the caravan and campsite, Holker Estate Company Ltd, claiming tens of thousands of pounds damages for his painful injuries.

But his claim was dismissed by a judge at Oldham County Court on November 12, last year, after he ruled that the accident had not been “reasonably foreseeable.”

Yesterday, Mr Hall launched a challenge to that decision before Sir Mark Potter, Lady Justice Arden and Lord Justice Hughes, sitting in London’s Civil Appeal Court.

Mr Hall’s barrister, Doug Cooper, told the court that his client owned a part-share in a static caravan at the Holker site.

The family, who were frequent visitors to the park, were four days into a week-long stay in August, 2003, when the accident happened.

The metal goalposts were supposed to have been secured to the ground with pegs to prevent them falling over and causing injury, the barrister said.

But on the occasion of the accident, those pegs had been removed by other campers staying at the site to use for their tents.

Mr Cooper went on to claim that the weekly safety inspection of the playground, which was carried out by site staff, including the goalposts, was not enough.

Judgement was reserved until a later date, but Sir Mark Potter gave Mr Hall hope when he said: “It was known that campers would purloin the pegs in order to use them for camping purposes. It seems to me there was a duty to have at least a daily inspection.”