Player to get $589,000 in damages for boundary fence injury

A former junior AFL player is set to receive more than $500,000 after Victoria’s highest court upheld a ruling that found his knee was seriously injured during a match because the boundary line was too close to a fence.

Beau Hart was awarded $589,525 in 2016 after he sued Beaumaris Football Club, the Southern Metro Junior Football League and Bayside City Council in the Victorian County Court for breaching their duty of care.

The south-east Melbourne club, league and Council appealed the decision, but it was dismissed by the Victorian Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Hart was 17 when he suffered the injury in the first game of the season in 2009. He took a mark near the goals but as he landed his foot caught the steel perimeter fence at the Banksia Reserve ground, badly injuring his knee and leaving him with a ‘foot drop’ that required a prosthetic aid to walk. It is also likely he will require a full knee replacement in the future.

Judge Robert Dyer ruled at the County Court in 2016 that the fence was less than the mandated three metres from the boundary line. He found the Club and Council had breached their duty and caused Hart’s injury.

Judeg Dyer awarded damages and ordered the Club and League to contribute 60%, with the Cuncil to settle the remainder.

At trial, Hart said he fell because the boundary line was too close to the fence. The Club and the League argued the boundary line exceeded the minimum distance of three metres specified by the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

Court of Appeal Justices Robert Osborn, David Beach and Stephen Kaye on Wednesday agreed with the 2016 decision.

They said the Club, League and Council “each failed to take reasonable care” in making sure the boundary line was marked at a “sufficiently safe” distance from the fence.

If the line had been marked at the prescribed distance, “the accident in all probability would not have occurred”, they said in their reasons.

With AAP