Beware The Hidden Risk: Event Organiser And Venue Owner Liability

Recent tragic events in motorsport, with the deaths of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli in IndyCar and MotoGP respectively, have brought into focus the role event organisers and venue owners play in ensuring the safety of those participating in sporting events and where liability rests when accidents do occur.

Liability - venue owners

The duty of care owed by an occupier to his visitors requires that such care is displayed to ensure that the visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he or she is there.

In the sporting context, the duty of an 'occupier' or venue owner was recently examined by the Court in Sutton v Syston Rugby Football Club Limited. Whilst playing a game of touch rugby, Jack Sutton dived for the try line, suffering a gash to his right knee. The judge found that his injury was caused by a broken cricket marker, which was buried in the grass and had been left behind by members of the cricket club.