Lm37,000 damages for injury at school

A court has ordered the government to pay over Lm37,000 in damages to a man who had been injured at school while still a boy.

Rowland Bezzina filed his writ for damages against the Minister for Education and Human Resources, the director general of the Education Department and the head of Guzè Galea Secondary School in Qormi.

Mr Bezzina claimed that he was injured while attending the school in February 1994 when he was 13 years old.

The First Hall of the Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, heard that Mr Bezzina had been in a double lesson of technical drawing when the teacher left the classroom before the lesson ended in order to prepare for the prize day. The class was left alone without a supervisor.

When the bell rang for the noon break, some of the children ran out of the classroom and, as a joke, kept the door shut so that the other students would not be able to leave.

One of the boys in the class was about to try to push the door down when he hit Mr Bezzina who fell and hit his face against the door.

Mr Bezzina was taken to hospital but lost the sight of his right eye.

The court heard that he had completed his schooling but when he applied to join the army and the police force he was turned down due to the fact that he was blind in one eye.

In his writ, which was originally filed by his parents as he was underage, Mr Bezzina claimed that the governmental authorities were responsible for his injury as they had failed to provide supervision for the children.

This was contractual liability and Mr Bezzina claimed that the authorities had not fulfilled their legal responsibilities.

Mr Justice Mallia declared that there was no doubt that the educational authorities were responsible for the care of the children while at school.

The degree of care expected from schools was the same as that expected from parents to their children, as the schools were in loco parentis while the children were at school.

Quoting from foreign case law, the court declared that it was the duty of schools to safeguard children from harm. In the same manner as employers were obliged to provide a safe system of work for the employees, it was the duty of school authorities to ensure that the children had a safe system of play with adequate monitoring.

Teachers were bound to supervise and be vigilant with regard to children in their care.

There was no doubt, said the court, that in this particular case the educational authorities had blatantly failed to perform their duties towards the child.

The court therefore found in favour of Mr Bezzina and ordered all respondents to pay him Lm37,500 in damages between them.