School liable for £2.5m personal injury claim

A personal injury claim of up to £2.5 million may be incurred by a school in North Lanarkshire, after a pupil was blinded and suffered brain damage in a freak accident.

Thomas Brown was kneeling on the floor when a fellow student nudged him, causing the child to fall onto a paintbrush that entered his eye.

A judge has ruled the accident was the fault of the school, on the basis it had not foreseen the potential for mishap and the incident might otherwise have been avoidable.

Now aged 18, the victim's yet-to-be-decided personal injury claim should cover his care needs for the rest of his life, with Mr Brown's family maintaining he will not be able to have a job or live without support.

The school denied responsibility on the basis such an accident has not happened before or since, but the presiding judge, Lady Dorrian, stated: "Foreseeability is not the same as frequency - an accident might rarely happen yet nevertheless be foreseeable."

Published by Tessa Jones