Every Day And Reasonably Safe Playground Activities Will Not Expose A Defendant School District To Occupier's Liability

Thompson (Litigation guardian of) v. Saanich (District), 2015 BCSC 1750, per Baird J. 

I. FACTS AND ISSUES

The Plaintiff was an 11 year old girl enrolled at a day camp offered by the Defendant, the Corporation of the District of Saanich (the "District") at the Gordon Head Middle School in Victoria, B.C. During morning recess, the Plaintiff was in the playground playing a game called Grounders (a variation of tag played on playground equipment) with a number of children. While playing the game, the Plaintiff fell from a piece of playground equipment and struck her head.

The game was improvised and the children decided to play it; it was not organized by the District's employees. Thompson and the other children had played Grounders the previous day and on other previous occasions without incident. At the time of the incident, the program assistant supervising the playground knew the children were playing Grounders and did not intervene to stop them. Indeed, the