The Court of Appeal has confirmed a judgment by the First Hall of the Civil Court that awarded €87,375 to a schoolboy who was injured while he was in a classroom.

The judgment was delivered in a case filed by Patrick Bezzina and his wife Mary Rose on behalf of their son Rowland Bezzina, who continued the case in his own name when he came of age. The case was filed against the Minister for Education and Human Resources, the Director General of Education and the head of the Secondary School Ġużè Galea in Qormi.

The first court heard that Rowland Bezzina was a 13-year-old student in 1994 at the Qormi secondary school. In February 1994, before the noon break, Mr Bezzina had a double lesson on technical drawing with teacher Alex Vella. Mr Vella had left the class to carry out other duties before the lesson ended. No supervisor was present and the children were left alone until it was time for break.

When the bell announcing break went off, some of the children ran out of the classroom and, as a joke, closed the door on their other classmates. The students still in the class unsuccessfully tried to push open the door. Another student, Clint Refalo, had run at the door but Mr Bezzina was in his path. Mr Bezzina was pushed onto the door and hit his face against the metal door handle. As a result, Mr Bezzina lost sight in his right eye.

The first court had concluded that there was no doubt that the educational authorities were responsible for the students in their care. This responsibility was equivalent to that of parents towards their children. Schools, the court noted, had a legal obligation to be responsible for the safety of schoolchildren for they were acting in the place of the children's parents.

In its judgment, the first court concluded that Mr Bezzina had not contributed to the accident. He had been accidentally hit by Mr Refalo.

The Minister for Education was to be held responsible towards Mr Bezzina for the responsibility to look after schoolchildren derived from the contract entered into when the state opened schools. This duty was to be borne primarily by the governmental authorities which provided means and financing to schools.

There were defects throughout the system, the court had noted and, as a result, the minister, the director and the head of school were held jointly liable for the damages sustained by Mr Bezzina. The court then awarded Mr Bezzina €87,375 in damages.

All three defendants lodged an appeal to the Court of Appeal composed of Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti. All the defendants claimed they were not responsible for the accident.

The court of appeal ruled that there was no specific law governing responsibility in such cases and that the general principles of civil law were to apply. Case law had established that the state could, in certain situations, be responsible for the actions of its employees and in damages if maladministration and negligence were proven.

The court heard that, although the teacher had left the class unattended by another teacher, he had instructed a schoolboy who was a prefect and school captain to supervise the class. This, the court ruled, did not exonerate the authorities from responsibility. The appointment of a school captain who was a schoolboy did not mean that the authorities had exercised reasonable care.

The accident would have been avoided if the head of school had instructed another teacher to replace the one who was told to leave the class to carry out other duties.

The Court of Appeal concluded by confirming in full the judgment delivered by the first court, including the award of €87,375 in damages.