Local teen awarded $275,000 after sports carnival injury at Neutral Bay Public School.

By ANNA USHER

A 17-year-old school student from the lower north shore has successfully sued Neutral Bay Public School after he was injured at a 2019 sports carnival.

The teen, who cannot be identified, has been awarded $276,500 after injuring himself during a long jump event while in Year 6.

At the time, the boy was aged 11 and injured his back after landing on a hard surface in the sandpit.

He told the court he experienced “immediate back pain” and had suffered back problems ever since.

The student took the case to the NSW District Court, claiming the school – and, in turn, the state of NSW – was “vicariously liable in negligence” for failing to ensure there was adequate sand in the landing area and that it was properly raked.

In October 2024, Judge Robert Newlinds SC ruled in favour of the state of NSW, but the teen successfully appealed the decision, with a fresh judgement handed down by acting Justice John Griffiths last Friday.

“I am comfortably satisfied that there was a breach of duty on the part of the school in failing to take reasonable precautions to minimise the risk of injury from long jumping,” Justice Griffiths said.

“There was a breach of duty here because of the school’s failure to take reasonable precautions which could have prevented [the student’s] injuries.

“Those precautions were not onerous.”

In determining damages, Justice Griffiths accepted the evidence of the student’s doctor, who claimed the injuries were ‘likely to affect his future outcome’.

During the trial, the student suggested he might wish to follow his mother into IT or finance after school and that his back pain might make sitting all day ‘quite hard’.

Justice Griffiths found that the teenager should be awarded $276,500 plus interest in damages, rejecting the school’s claim that the injury would have arisen regardless of the force or hardness of his landing in the sandpit, as it arose from intra-abdominal pressure.

‘It is possible [the student] may still have suffered the same injuries had there been an adequate amount of sand in his landing area,’ he said.

“However, it is no “answer to the question whether something has been demonstrated as being more probable than not to say that there is another possibility open”.