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Law 12Tort LawMs. Ripley
Grant v. Dempsey/ Thomas v. Hamilton (City) Board of Education
Grant v. Dempsey (2001), 190 N.S.R. (2d) 392 (Nova Scotia Supreme Court)
On October 14, 1995, the 18-year-old plaintiff Adrian Grant, was lying in the middle of a street in Middleton, Nova Scotia, severely intoxicated, wearing dark clothing. At 1:30 A.M., he was run over and seriously injured by a van operated by the defendant, Garth Dempsey. The defendant had been working on renovations with a fellow worker until close to 1:00 A.M. that morning, and was driving home at a speed between 40 and 50 km/h. It was a dark, but dry, night, and there were no streetlights in the area. Shortly before the accident, Dempsey met a pickup truck coming down the road. He put his van's lights on low beam before meeting the oncoming vehicle. As he looked ahead, Dempsey had no time to put his headlights back on high beam because he immediately "saw an object right there in front of him." He testified that he thought it was a duffle bag or a garbage bag. When he realized he had run over a person, he called 911. Evidence at trial indicated that the plaintiff had a blood-alcohol level of about 193 (about two and one-half times the legal limit for driving) at the time of the accident, and he had no recollection of how he came to be lying of the road. He testified that he would sometimes drink a case of beer in a couple of hours. The judge concluded that Grant was lying on the road as a result of severe intoxication and remained in that state. The plaintiff sued for damages for personal injuries, but the court dismissed the action.
a) Can you find any fault in Dempsey's driving? Explain.
b) To what extent was Grant responsible for his own injuries? Explain.
c) Why do you think the court dismissed Grant's action?
Thomas v. Hamilton (City) Board of Education (1994), 20 O.R. (3d) 598 (Ontario Court of Appeal)
Jeffry Thomas, an athletic 16-year-old student at ScottParkSecondary School, was one of the best and most experienced players on his school's junior football team. He also played in the Steel City Peewee League and was named the most valuable offensive player in the league. Football skills were taught as part of the regular classroom physical education program and as an extracurricular activity in Hamilton high schools. Games were coached by teachers selected by school principals. Students were eligible to play junior football if they were not older than 15 years at the beginning of the school year, and if they provided a permission form signed by their parents and a medical certificate indicating that they were fit to play football.
Between 1980 and 1982, Thomas played football and basketball, rode his bike, jogged, and lifted weights four times a week. By the fall of 1982, he was 183 cm tall and weighed about 68 kg. In October 1982, during a football game, Thomas tackled an opposing player, headfirst, crashing into the punt returner's hip. Thomas was running at jogging speed or faster; the punt returner was running at full speed. All witnesses agreed that the contact between the two players was substantial, and that Thomas's body was extended but his head was not up at the point of contact. He and the other players had been taught to tackle with their shoulders, not their heads, and contact should be made with a shoulder. Thomas suffered serious injury to his cervical spine, which left him quadriplegic. Thomas and his family sued the school board and the school football coaches. The action was dismissed at trial, and Thomas and his family appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In a 3 to 0 judgment in late 1994, the appeal was dismissed.
a) Outline the arguments that could be made on behalf of the plaintiff.
b) Why did the plaintiff sue the Hamilton Board of Education?
c) What factors do you think the court took into consideration in dismissing the plaintiffs appeal?