Brooklyn Journal of International Law
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"I Expected Common Sense to Prevail": Vowles v.
Evans, Amateur Rugby, and Referee Liability in the
U.K.
Erin McMurray
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“I EXPECTED COMMON SENSE TO
PREVAIL”
1
: VOWLES V. EVANS,
AMATEUR RUGBY, AND REFEREE
NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K.
I. INTRODUCTION
n a boggy field in 1998, Welsh Rugby Union referee
David Evans made a fateful decision to allow amateur
rugby players to proceed with a risky maneuver known as an
uncontested scrum.
2
The “long, but hard-fought” match be-
tween Tondu and Llanharan teams saw several collapsed
scrums which left players piled on top of one another.
3
Llanha-
ran was up by three points and replaced one of their experi-
enced players in the front row of the scrum with an inexperi-
enced player, thus violating official rugby rules. Evans did not
object to an inexperienced Tondu player’s inclusion in the risky
maneuver
4
and the Llanharan coaches perceived no danger to
1. Referee David Evans informed the Tondu team that he “expected com-
mon sense to prevail” in the game that brought about the case that this Note
will address. Peter Charlish, Richard Vowles – Rugby Case, 2
J.P.I. LAW 85
(2003).
2. The rules of rugby are complex and have undergone changes in the last
decade. An exhaustive discussion of the game’s rules is beyond the scope of
this Note. However, the Welsh Rugby Union website has excellent diagrams
and glossaries for the novice rugby player or spectator. The Welsh Rugby
Union at http://www.wru.co.uk.
3. James Pritchard, Amateur Rugby Could be Crippled by Injury Ruling,
Appeal Court Told, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Feb. 25, 2003
At the end of a hard-fought game in wet and muddy conditions when
Tondu were pressing on the Llanharan line in an attempt to erase a
3-0 deficit, a series of collapsed scrums occurred. At the final scrum,
well into injury time, Richard suffered life-threatening back injuries
as the opposing packs engaged. As a result of his injuries, he is left
paralysed and will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Id.
4. Since 1997, inexperienced “props” have been forbidden from playing in
the front row during a contested scrum. See Rugby Player Hopes for Safer
Game, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Feb. 26, 2003, available at IC Wales: The National
Website of Wales, at http://icwales.icnetword.co.uk/0100news/0200wales (33-
year-old Chris Jones of the Tondu team had played prop only twice in his ca-
reer before he volunteered to in the Vowles match.).
O
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1308 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
the players.
5
As a result of Evans’s deference to the team cap-
tains, 24-year-old Richard Vowles broke his neck in the scrum
and sustained paralyzing spinal injuries.
6
Vowles sued the
Llanharan team, Evans, and the WRU in negligence and pre-
vailed in his claims against Evans and the WRU.
7
Vowles was
the first British case which held that referees owe a duty of care
to adult, amateur rugby players to protect players’ safety.
Vowles was, like all high-profile tort cases, controversial and
polarizing. Tort enjoys what one scholar calls “residual status.”
8
It is a catchall field where actions that do not ring in contract,
criminal, or property law may be heard.
9
Tort encompasses
large, multi-party cases with enormous damages at stake as
well as ordinary slip-and-fall cases.
10
The specter of compensa-
tory and punitive damages in civil actions reveals the compet-
ing goals within tort law: is tort primarily intended to compen-
sate injured plaintiffs? Or to punish and deter tortfeasors? Or
both? Several scholars have explored the inherent politics of
tort law because it determines whether a plaintiff will be
compensated for his or her injury, who should compensate the
5. Crippled Player’s Coach Testifies, THE WESTERN MAIL, Feb. 26, 2003
available at IC Wales: The National Website of Wales at
http://icwales.icnetwork/co.uk/0100news/0200wales (“...Derrick Brown, who
was Llanharan…coach at the time of the accident said yesterday that he did
not think there was any danger to the players.”). Interestingly, players on
both teams experienced Jones’s entry into the game differently: Tondu player
Gareth Davies said that scrums had “descended into a joke” after Jones en-
tered the game and that he could “twist [Jones] and bring him down low. He
clearly did not have any experience as a prop and we said to the ref that we
should have unopposed scrums.” Robin Turner, Legal Claim a Threat to
Amateur Rugby, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Oct. 17, 2002 (Vowles testified that “The
ideal prop has a bull neck…with plenty of upper body strength…Chris Jones
was thinner than the average prop…”).
6. Injured Hookoer Awaits Verdict, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Nov. 7, 2002
According to Mr. Vowles, a pushover attempt was repeatedly held up
by scrum collapses and, when the two teams finally ‘rammed to-
gether,’ his back ‘turned to jelly.’ The game was abandoned and he
was taken to a hospital. Two vertebrae had been dislocated, leading
to serious spinal damage and paralysis of [t]he [sic] legs.
Id.
7. Vowles v. Evans, [2003] E.C.C. 240 (Eng.).
8. G.
EDWARD WHITE, TORT LAW IN AMERICA: AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
291 (2003).
9. Id.
10. See id.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1309
plaintiff, and how much that plaintiff’s injuries are worth.
11
Negligence is particularly fertile ground for such speculation
because its elements – duty, breach, cause, proximate case –
require broad discretion by judges and, in the U.S., juries.
12
These elements are not static, rather, their determinations are
infused with public opinion and policy considerations. What
constitutes a compensable injury has transformed over time
and continues to generate public debate about attendant reallo-
cations of risk and cost.
13
Vowles is no exception to this spirited legacy. Sports law in
the U.S. and U.K. is an appropriate locus for such inquiries be-
cause of sports’ enormous popularity and cultural resonance.
An exploration of Vowles’s particular circumstances is impor-
tant to understand Vowles’s, and any injured athlete’s, stake in
the case. The Vowles court was explicit in its decision regarding
who should bear the cost of Vowles’s injuries. Like all tort
cases, Vowles was not rendered in a historical or cultural vac-
uum. The Vowles court did not blindly apply legal doctrine to
the facts but asked the age-old torts question: who will, and
should, pay?
14
Exploring the nuances of Vowles’s personal
11. See generally JOANNE CONAGHAN & WADE MANSELL, THE WRONGS OF
TORT 3 (2d ed. 1999). Another tort expert argues that in the U.K. “At bottom,
the rules of tort law reflect policy decisions by the judiciary about the interests
that are protected and the type of conduct that is sanctioned.”
JANE WRIGHT,
TORT LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS 13 (2001). Wright argues, further, that because
the U.K. lacks a bill of rights, that tort law has been a locus for determining
which rights to protect. Id.
12. See W
HITE, supra note 8, at 332
Implicit in a collective decision by courts and commentators that tort
law should be a vehicle for assessing claims for compensations for
certain classes of injuries is a judgment that the costs of those inju-
ries need not invariably lie on those who suffered them, and that
some activities have a responsibility for contributing to the costs of
injuries they create.
Id.
13. Tobacco litigation is an excellent example of injuries’ transformation
over time from non-compensable to compensable. See generally Robert. L.
Rabin, The Tobacco Litigation: A Tentative Assessment, 51 D
EPAUL L. REV.
331 (2001).
14. Robert Rabin argues that cases that “stand the test of time” raise the
question of who should pay for “bizarre injuries” such as Mrs. Palsgraf’s in
Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad. See T
ORTS STORIES 2 (Robert L. Rabin &
Stephen D. Sugarman eds., 2003). Rabin’s explication of Palsgraf reveals that
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1310 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
situation against the backdrop of Welsh rugby’s troubled road
to professionalization and the nation’s widespread economic
depression is crucial to understanding the Court’s decision to
compensate Vowles at the WRU’s expense.
15
That Vowles’s injuries were emotionally and physically dev-
astating does not distinguish him from any catastrophically in-
jured plaintiff. His loss of livelihood, however, was three-fold:
Vowles was a Commonwealth Games boxer who had gone pro-
fessional in addition to amateur rugby.
16
Like many amateur
rugby players, Vowles also had a day job to support himself.
17
His club, Llanharan, was semi-professional which meant that it
ranked just below Wales’s top leagues.
18
If Vowles received any
compensation from the WRU at all, it was insufficient to sup-
port himself.
19
The Vowles decision emerged amidst widespread criticism of
the UK’s “compensation culture.”
20
“Compensation culture” en-
Mrs. Palsgraf was far more seriously injured, both physically and emotionally,
than any first-year torts student would infer from reading the case. See id. at
2-9.
15. Rabin argues that “Behind each notable case are a host of concerns and
considerations that are hidden even from the discerning eye…much more can
be learned from digging beneath the surface to find out more about the par-
ties, the events giving rise to the claimed injury, and the corresponding con-
text of socio-economic circumstances in which the case arose. Id. at 1.
16. WRU Wins Right to Appeal Claim, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Feb. 18, 2003.
17. E.g., Vowles was an upholsterer. See Turner, supra note 5.
18. Id.
19. During the trial, Justice Morland, who had played rugby in his youth,
asked whether Vowles received “boot money,” meaning a nominal sum to
cover his expenses. Vowles responded jokingly, “No, your Honour, I was not
that good.” Id.
20. During the summer of 2003, for example, the U.K. government un-
veiled a redress plan for victims of clinical negligence, known as medical mal-
practice in the U.S. See Jon Robins, The Government is Hoping to Dig Itself
Out of a Hole with its New 30K NHS Redress Scheme. But Will Victims of
Negligence Get Short Changed?, T
HE LAWYER, July 21, 2003, available at 2003
WL 61848856. The package of reforms offers payments of up to £30,000 for
victims of clinical negligence without litigation. Id. While proponents of the
reforms claim that foregoing litigation is not a prerequisite to recovering the
£30,000, a Nottingham personal injury lawyers said that “…you can bet your
bottom dollar the first thing that will happen is that all legal aid is with-
drawn, on the basis that you have to go through with the scheme.” Id. Many
personal injury lawyers and victims’ rights activists were outraged by the
reforms. See id. Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action for Victims of Medical
Accidents, pointed out that those injured in car accidents or at work have “no
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1311
tered British parlance after the actuarial profession published
“The Cost of Compensation Culture” in 2002. Its authors main-
tained that plaintiffs’ recovery had increased fifteen percent
annually in recent history.
21
Vowles seemed, to some, an em-
blem of the erosion of the legal profession generally.
22
The re-
port attributed the disappearance of Britons’ “stiff upper lip” to
litigation and lamented the “rich tapestry of life” that would be
“dumbed down and reduced to bland humourless interactions,
which is not what we won a war for.”
23
Personal injury lawyers,
conversely, argued that actuaries, as “well-heeled profession-
als,” value the “rich tapestry of life” while “others…cannot af-
ford that luxury.”
24
A decade earlier, in the United States similar debates
abounded amidst lawsuits against sports officials. States and
Congress enacted laws protecting volunteer referees from plain-
tiffs seeking a windfall.
25
The U.K. faces a similar dilemma in
restrictions on…access to justice,” yet those injured by clinical negligence
have limited recovery. Id. A personal injury lawyer who specializes in child
plaintiffs argued that how a child sustained an injury does not matter to a
child and yet if it is from clinical negligence “they could get diddly squat by
comparison.” Id.
21. PI and Clinical Negligence – Actuaries Take Swipe at Claimants, T
HE
LAWYER, March 3, 2003, available at 2003 WL 8525768. See also David Mar-
shall, Compensation Culture, J.
PERS. INJ. L. 79 (2003).
22. The WRU’s lawyer lamented the High Court’s decision partly because
“It is not difficult to see a legal advert going in a local papers saying, ‘Have
you been injured in a rugby match – then come to us.’” James Pritchard,
Amateur Rugby Could be Crippled by Injury Ruling, Appeal Court Told, T
HE
WESTERN MAIL, Feb 25, 2003, available at http://icwales.icnet-
work.co.uk/0100news/ 0200wales.
23. Marshall, supra note 21, at 83.
24. Id. Marshall argues that “…the whole point of health and safety law
and of proper risk assessment is to require those responsible to think about
how to reduce risk to the lowest achievable level by the taking of all reason-
able precautions…society expects the wrongdoer to compensate the victims.”
Id. at 87 n.16.
25. See Volunteer Protection Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 105-19, 1997
U.S.C.C.A.N. (111 Stat. 218) 152.
The litigation craze is hurting the spirit of volunteerism that is an in-
tegral part of American society. From school chaperones to Girl
Scout and Boy Scout troop leaders to Big Brothers and Big Sisters,
volunteers perform valuable services. But rather than thanking
these volunteers, our current legal system allows them to be dragged
into court and subjected to needless and unfair lawsuits….Until the
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1312 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
the wake of Vowles, which raises the question of whether the
U.S.’s legislative solutions should be instructive. Although
these debates share similar rhetoric and philosophies, this Note
argues that U.S. laws protecting volunteer referees from liabil-
ity would not result in just decisions for plaintiffs like Vowles.
U.S. statutes focus on the social utility of volunteer referees,
which would not address the difficulties that amateur British
rugby players endured during the sport’s troubled transition to
professionalization over the past five years. Perhaps more im-
portant, the Welsh Rugby Union is a far more prosperous or-
ganization than the non-profit organizations U.S. volunteering
laws seek to protect.
This Note considers Vowles in a comparative legal context by
testing the viability of U.S. state and federal laws that limit
volunteer referees liability. First, it will trace the history of
Welsh rugby’s painful road to professionalization in the late
1990’s. Second, it will chart the genesis of U.K. and U.S. refe-
ree liability and their respective standards of care. Third, it
will examine the limited success of the assumption of risk de-
fense in Vowles and analogous sports cases in the U.K. and U.S.
Fourth, it will set out U.S. state law efforts to limit referee li-
ability in amateur competitions. The Note will conclude by ar-
guing that U.S. state and federal law is not an appropriate
model for amateur referee liability in the U.K. because of the
specific dilemmas inherent to Welsh rugby at the time of
Vowles’s injury.
mid-1980’s, the number of lawsuits filed against volunteers might
have been counted on one hand.
Id.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1313
II. T
HE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF RUGBY IN ENGLAND
AND WALES
26
A. The International Rugby Board’s Decision to
Professionalize Rugby Union
The International Rugby Board professionalized rugby union
in August, 1995.
27
The English Rugby Football Union (“RFU”)
experienced this change unevenly. Despite being an amateur
organization, the RFU paid its administrators to keep abreast
of developments in rugby worldwide.
28
Until 1995, the RFU ad-
hered strictly to its constitution’s Bylaw 4, which prohibited
direct or indirect payment or material gain for rugby-playing.
29
Taking its cue from football’s success with satellite television
and strategic marketing, the RFU sought sponsorship from a
large British brewing conglomerate and a financial services
group.
30
Although one scholar described amateurism in rugby as an
“increasingly flimsy pretence,” most English rugby clubs paid
its players only travel expenses.
31
Players found notoriety and
financial security at the national rather than the league level.
32
In Wales, even the greatest players traditionally were employed
26. This Note recognizes the rich distinctions between England and Wales
but also appreciates the utility of discussing them simultaneously. From a
legal perspective, England and Wales share legal doctrine and case law. See
generally T
ERENCE INGMAN, THE ENGLISH LEGAL PROCESS (9
th
ed. 2001). That
their rugby cultures are intertwined is evident in various histories of British
sports history which discuss the two nations interchangeably. See generally
A
DRIAN SMITH, CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND: THE CLUBS, THE RFU, AND THE IMPACT
OF
PROFESSIONALISM ON RUGBY UNION, IN AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS IN
POST-WAR BRITISH SPORT 178 (2000).
27. See S
MITH, supra note 26, at 146. The International Rugby Football
Board declared in 1995 that
Rugby will become an open game and there will be no prohibition on
payments or the provision of other material benefit to any person in-
volved in the game. It was also agreed that (1) payment might be
made at any level of participation; (2) there should be no pay ceiling
imposed by the council; (3) payment for results is not prohibited.
Id.
28. Id. at 147.
29. Id. at 149.
30. Id. at 147-48.
31. Id. at 146-47.
32. Id.
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1314 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
outside of the sport to support themselves.
33
Historically, ama-
teur rugby players who accepted compensation ruined their ca-
reers in the sport or tarnished their reputations considerably.
34
By the late 1980’s, however, the RFU recognized that many
high-profile rugby union players resented amateurism.
35
While
the 1991 World Cup drew 13.6 million viewers, most of the Eng-
lish team continued to work for wages in addition to rugby.
36
B. The Welsh Rugby Union and Professionalization
Unlike English rugby players, Welsh players were notorious
for “shamateurism” by accepting inflated “expenses.”
37
The
Welsh Rugby Union turned a blind eye to these practices for
fear of losing its most talented players to more lucrative pros-
pects in England’s rugby league.
38
This fear was likely justified
since Welsh players were recruited into English league rugby
far more frequently than RFU players.
39
33. Id. at 149.
34. Id.
35. Id. at 149. The players’ resentment was, no doubt, rooted in the preva-
lence of rugby players in New Zealand and South Africa who supported them-
selves through endorsements. Id.
36. Id. One player collected unemployment to prepare for the World Cup
in South Africa in 1995. Id. The RFU did not, however, object to lead players
working as clubs’ “rugby development officers.” Id.
37. Id.
38. Id. at 149-50. Players usually found themselves ostracized by the
WRU after “switching codes.” Id. at 150. Contracts in English league rugby
were considerably more generous than the WRU: in the 1990’s, Martin Offiah
left WRU and received £435,000 per annum as an English league player. See
generally G
EOFFREY MOORHOUSE, A PEOPLE’S GAME: THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF
RUGBY LEAGUE 338 (1996). Some players denounced the WRU’s hypocritical
“shamateurism”: Scott Gibbs, who left Swansea for St. Helens, said that
It grates me that I am called a prostitute while players and officials
keep on covering up what’s going on in union. Every player in Wales
knows that when you play on a Saturday, if you win you can get a few
quid. Players get the cash after the game.
Id.
John Duncan & Ian Malin, Kicked Into Touch, T
HE GUARDIAN, May 25, 1995
at 12, available at 1995 WL 7603805.
39. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 181.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1315
The last twenty-three years have been pivotal for Welsh
rugby.
40
Two rugby historians deemed those years “decades of
doubt, desperation, and near disintegration…” characterized by
countless losses and administrative troubles.
41
The 1980’s and
1990’s were particularly painful after the sport’s success in the
1970’s.
42
Moreover, rugby was fractured on an international
scale because of South African rugby’s centennial celebrations
which some teams refused to attend because of the persistence
of apartheid.
43
The WRU left the decision to play to individual
players, which proved calamitous to the organization.
44
Secre-
tary David East resigned in 1989.
45
By 1993 the entire general
committee walked out and had to be replaced.
46
The WRU had
six secretaries within eleven years.
47
Further, the WRU capped
seventy-five players and fired four national coaches between
1988-92.
48
Instability governed the game at an administrative
and playing level.
1. Wales’s 1980’s Economic Crisis and the WRU’s
Resistance to Professionalization
This instability reverberated beyond the playing field. In the
1980’s, Wales suffered Depression-era reductions in manufac-
40. See generally Dai Smith & Gareth Williams, Beyond the Fields of
Praise: Welsh Rugby 1980-99, in M
ORE HEART AND SOUL: THE CHARACTER OF
WELSH RUGBY 207-32 (Huw Richards et al. eds., 1999). (“In 1980-1 Welsh
rugby, walking tall, crossed the threshold of its second century…The next
twenty years would see it flailing to stay upright, when it was not flat on its
face.”). For an account of Welsh rugby’s early 20
th
Century history, see DAVID
PARRY-JONES, PRINCE GWYN: GWYN NICHOLLS AND THE FIRST GOLDEN ERA OF
WELSH RUGBY (1999).
41. Smith & Williams, supra note 40, at 208-9.
42. Id. at 210. Smith and Williams attribute much of the decade’s success
to WRU secretary Ray Williams who urged the WRU to establish a national
league rather than “small group[s] of clubs putting up barriers and saying
that things must always stay the same.” Id.
43. Id. at 211. Wales attended the fetes in South Africa and internal dis-
putes consumed the WRU. Id. The New Zealand Rugby Union faced the same
divisiveness. Id. See also S
MITH, supra note 26, at 150-52.
44. Smith & Williams, supra note 40, at 211.
45. Id. at 212.
46. Id.
47. Id.
48. Id.
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1316 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
turing and mining.
49
In 1981, there were 27,000 Welsh coal
miners employed in 36 pits nationwide. By 1989, there was a
single operating coal mine in Wales.
50
The steel industry was
similarly decimated: by 1991, the steel workforce was one-third
what it was in 1979.
51
While manufacturing troubles plagued
the entire U.K., many Welsh people felt abandoned by their
more powerful and prosperous neighbors.
52
This resentment
seethed in Welsh rugby because of the sport’s working-class
roots.
53
As coal mines closed and workers struck, rugby’s fan
base was either forced to migrate to areas where coal had never
been the primary economy or remain and live in isolation and
poverty.
54
Likewise, many Welsh rugby players migrated to
English teams for larger salaries and, presumably, a more sta-
ble profession.
55
Welsh fear of being dwarfed by England was exacerbated by
the International Rugby Board’s 1995 decision to go profes-
sional after nearly a century of amateurism.
56
The WRU did not
support the IRB’s decision and distributed a 23-point document
arguing against professionalization.
57
While many high-profile
rugby players decried the inequity of “shamateurism” and their
inability to make a living solely from playing the sport, profes-
sionalization posed a serious threat to WRU’s finances and mo-
rale.
58
Further, the decision to professionalize occurred against the
backdrop of physical education reforms in Welsh grammar
schools, which were the traditional spawning grounds for rugby
49. Id. at 213.
50. Id.
51. Id.
52. Id. (“In the 1980s when you left the train at Paddington you almost
tasted the indifference of prosperity to deprivation.”).
53. In 1978, national coach Phil Bennett listed various ways in which Eng-
land had oppressed Wales to urge his team to victory against England. Id.
54. Id. at 214.
55. Id. Between 1980 and 1991, eighteen Welsh players migrated to Eng-
lish teams. Id.
56. Id. at 207-8.
57. Id. at 208. Interestingly, the International Rugby Board’s chairperson
at the time of the decision was Welsh. Id. at 207.
58. Six months after professionalization, Llanelli lost £900,000 and sold
Stradey Park to WRU for £1.5 million. Id. at 221. The majority of Welsh
clubs continue to operate at a deficit. Id. at 221.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1317
talent.
59
Welsh education, including physical education pro-
grams, became more nationalized and exam-driven and less
devoted to extra-curricular and team sports.
60
As a result, the
rhythm of Welsh schoolchildren’s weeks changed drastically
because of the national curriculum as they directed their free
time toward national exams. By the early 1990’s, fewer than
thirty public schools in the south of Wales played rugby at the
traditional Saturday morning time.
61
These reforms narrowed
Welsh rugby’s recruiting base considerably.
62
C. Rugby’s Troubled post-1995 Transition to Professionalization
in the United Kingdom
The earliest years of professionalization were troublesome to
Welsh rugby, and to Wales generally, though rugby historians
consider the Welsh victory over South Africa in the summer of
1999 a national watershed.
63
The national team brought the
nation six international victories by the summer of 1999 and
heralded the newly-christened Millenium Stadium.
64
Historians
consider 1999 a pivotal year in Welsh history, generally. The
establishment of the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 gave
the nation symbolic and actual autonomy from England – in-
deed, the Welsh victory over England in Wembley stadium that
spring embodied the nation’s fighting spirit.
65
The Rugby Football Union (“RFU”) in England was always a
stalwart supporter of amateur sport – indeed, there is still re-
sistance to professionalization within the organization.
66
The
movement toward professionalization signaled a shift in focus
from players’ needs to those of spectators.
67
Rugby union had
59. Id. at 219-20.
60. Id. at 220.
61. Id. at 220.
62. Id. at 220-21. (“For Wales, like eighteenth-century Holland, a country
with too narrow a demographic base for it to remain naturally competitive in
rugby terms…”).
63. Id.
64. Id. at 231.
65. Id. at 6-7.
66. Id. at 123.
67. Id. at 152. “Television is, of course, the key to understanding why…the
International Rugby Board…made its surprise announcement that: ‘Rugby
will become an open game and there will be no prohibition on payments…’” Id.
A British legal scholar points out that referee interference often means that
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1318 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
never matched the fan base of soccer or rugby league.
68
Through professionalization, the RFU hoped to improve playing
standards to compete with South American teams, to serve
commercial interests by participating in more formal competi-
tions, and, perhaps most important to Vowles, to support the
RFU’s dependence on revenue from gate receipts, media cover-
age, advertising, and sponsorship.
69
The road to professionalization created enormous rifts be-
tween England and the “Celtic nations” of Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland.
70
Within a year of the IRFB’s decision to professional-
ize, the elite English clubs formed the English Professional
Rugby Union Clubs and pushed unilaterally for enormous tele-
vision contracts.
71
The RFU eventually compromised with
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland by compensating their respective
Unions and promising not to execute its next television contract
unilaterally.
72
This RFU decision was particularly devastating
to the WRU since professionalization had nearly bankrupted
it.
73
The Chair of the RFU Management Board ultimately con-
vinced the WRU to accept the RFU’s decision by conceding that
widely-broadcasted games would improve the sport’s financial
situation immensely.
74
“Spectators are disappointed, pundits frustrated, and competitors endangered
by inconsistent application of ineffective rules…the careful player is a bore…”
Paul Rice, Fair Play or Spoiled Sport: The Legal Obligations of the Referee, 28
L
IVERPOOL L. REV. 81, 89 (1996).
68. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 174.
69. Id.
70. Id. at 193.
71. The clubs encouraged the RFU to sign a contract with the British
Broadcasting Company, giving it the sole rights to broadcast games between
1996-2001. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 154. This decision was made without
negotiating with other Home Nations and Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Rugby
Unions were outraged. Id. at 155. Most of the RFU was also angry because
scarcely any RFU members were EPRUC members. Id. The root of their anger
was the possibility of exclusive pay-per-view access to a game that had always
prided itself on free access for its fan base. Id.
72. Id.
73. Id.
74. I
AN MALIN, MUD, BLOOD AND MONEY: ENGLISH RUGBY UNION GOES
PROFESSIONAL 36-37 (1997).
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1319
D. Professionalization’s Effect on Individual Rugby Players
The centrality of television broadcasting put immense pres-
sure on professional and amateur players because broadcasters
would only cover club rugby games with high-profile players.
75
Top players could not be injured lest they lose their opportunity
to reap the benefits of television revenue.
76
By 1998, there were
two new trends in British rugby union: more frequent rugby
code swaps between league and union players and increased
recruitment of foreign players to English club rugby.
77
In 1998,
rugby clubs were “desperate for success” and were willing to
pay foreign players exorbitant sums of money at the expense of
aging or injured players.
78
After professionalization, rugby
league players who switched to Welsh rugby union for the pos-
sibility of compensation faced uncertain futures.
79
Within a
year, only half of them were playing for top Welsh teams.
80
During that year, two English clubs went bankrupt and many
clubs began canceling player contracts.
81
Welsh rugby was par-
ticularly vulnerable, with only two of its clubs financially capa-
ble of maintaining professional status.
82
These financial afflictions within Welsh rugby encouraged
bitter rifts within WRU, particularly because the national
team’s disappointing 1997-98 season dragged morale to an “all-
time low.”
83
The two highest-profile Welsh clubs broke off from
the national Premier Division to play in the English Premier-
ship to attract larger crowds and higher revenue.
84
Further, the
dissident clubs argued that Welsh rugby had a lower playing
75. SMITH, supra note 26, at 157.
76. M
ALIN, supra note 74, at 34.
77. Id.
78. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 163.
79. Id.
80. Id. at 184.
81. Id. For more on the financially precarious state of rugby clubs in the
U.K. in the late 1990’s, see Peter Bills, Players Pay Price as Family Silver
Sold Off, S
UNDAY TIMES (London), Mar. 15 1998, at 45. See also Ian Malin,
Moseley Left on Rugby’s Back Burner, T
HE GUARDIAN, Mar. 14 1998, available
at 1998 WL 3083644. See also M
ALIN, supra note 74, at 166-7.
82. The Cardiff and Swansea clubs were scarcely able to remain afloat in
1998. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 157.
83. Id. at 167. See also Owen Slot, Wales Hit Crisis Point as World Cup
Looms, S
UNDAY TELEGRAPH, Oct. 4, 1998, at 31.
84. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 167.
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1320 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
standard than English rugby.
85
The WRU imposed hefty fines
and the renegade clubs returned to the WRU in 1999.
86
The
conflict between elite and struggling clubs continued through
the 1999 World Cup, which illuminated the disparities between
the “stars and journeymen” of professional rugby.
87
Players who
could propel teams to global success could potentially triple
their salaries while others sought team vacancies because their
squads had dissolved.
88
While professionalization gave a select few players the poten-
tial for high earnings, rugby salaries continued to lag far behind
those of soccer players in the U.K.
89
The highest-paid English
rugby player was ranked 100
th
in 1999 listing of the U.K.’s top-
earning athletes.
90
Clubs also began recruiting star players
from the southern hemisphere for costly short-term contracts,
thus constricting opportunities for players in the Home Na-
tions.
91
Clubs renegotiated and capped their local players’ sala-
ries to fund transitory foreign players.
92
By 1999, British rugby
union’s treatment of its players was “too often demeaning” in
the transition to professionalization.
93
85. Id.
86. Id.
87. Id.
88. Id.
89. Id.
90. An English World Cup victory would increase a player’s salary from
£32,000 to £90,000. Id. This compensation is about twice what an English
cricket player in a similar position would earn. Id. For athlete compensation
rankings in the U.K., see Julia Finch, Chelsea Fuel Wage Explosion, T
HE
GUARDIAN, Apr. 30, 1999, available at 24 1999 WL 16877888.
91. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 172.
92. Id. In response to the caps, the Professional Rugby Players Association
charged the elite English First Division Rugby organization with “restraint of
trade” under EU law. Ian Malin, Players May Go to Law Over Rugby Wage
Cap, T
HE GUARDIAN, Mar. 27, 1999, at 13, available at 1999 WL 14125761.
93. S
MITH, supra note 26, at 172 (“Clubs’ treatment of individual play-
ers…merely contributed to the appalling image professional rugby had ac-
quired after four years of incessant squabbling and near universal malevo-
lence.”).
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1321
E. The Link Between Professionalization and
Higher Incidence of Injury
Perhaps not surprisingly, increased professionalization and
commercialization of rugby led to a higher incidence of injury.
94
Vowles’ particular injury had been prevalent in rugby football
for decades but has increased dramatically within the past
thirty years.
95
The reason for this increase in spinal injuries is
curious since many of the sport’s governing bodies have created
laws to “depower the scrum.”
96
Studies of the injury, and of
rugby injuries generally, reveal that higher skill level increases
the likelihood of injury.
97
British sports medicine experts agree
that the IRB’s decision to professionalize rugby union has in-
creased the likelihood of injury for professional and amateur
players alike,
98
but disagree about whether to attribute this in-
crease to greater physical force within the game or an increased
emphasis on players’ strength and speed.
99
An ethnographer
recently interviewed players on a Welsh rugby team during
94. Dominic Malcolm and Kenneth Sheard, “Pain in the Assets”: The Ef-
fects of Commercialization and Professionalization on the Management of In-
jury in English Rugby Union, 19 SOC. OF SPORT J. 149, 152 (2002).
95. J.R. Silver, The Impact of the 21
st
Century on Rugby Injuries, 40 SPINAL
CORD 552 (2002) (“I became concerned when I began to see players with tetra-
plegia as a result of rugby accidents…between 1965 and 1970…There was a
dramatic increase…from 1970 onwards.”). Silver is a physician at the Na-
tional Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the U.K. Id. He
has also been an expert witness in three rugby injury cases. Id. at 558.
96. Id. at 556. (These efforts included the uncontested scrum’s advent.).
97. Id. (“My limited figures suggest that greater skill does not protect
[players]…”). Silver’s study of schoolboy rugby revealed that skilled rugby
players were four times more likely to sustain injury than unskilled players.
Id. A study of Scottish rugby found that between 1993-94, when rugby union
was entirely amateur, and 1997-98, when the sport turned professional, inju-
ries doubled even though the number of hours played was lower. See also
Garraway WM, Impact of Professionalism on Injuries in Rugby Union, B
R. J.
SPORTS MED. 348, 348-51 (2000). Thirty percent of professional rugby players
injured between 1997-98 abstained from playing for the rest of the season.
Silver, supra note 95, at 556.
98. Silver, supra note 95, at 556 (“The penalties for accepting the financial
and other rewards accompanying professionalism in rugby union appear to
include a major increase in player morbidity.”).
99. For the argument that increased injuries are a result of more forceful
tackles, see Garraway, supra note 97, at 173. Silver argues that his studies
reveal that an increased emphasis on strength and speed is the reason for
increased injuries. Silver, supra note 95, at 557.
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1322 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
their professionalization process which increased training time
and injuries.
100
As a result, players were more prone to injury
and, yet, less likely to disclose pain and injury.
101
Professional
rugby union players face the two-fold pressure of performing for
their club and the prospect of being recruited for the Welsh na-
tional team, as revealed by a high-profile player’s comment that
“[t]he fact that I am paid to play the game places great stress on
me…It would be devastating when Wales comes calling if I am
out with an injury.”
102
Clearly, rugby in the U.K., and Wales in particular, is in flux.
Its players and clubs face uncertain futures. Players also grap-
ple with the cultural and financial pressure accompanying the
RFU’s decision to go professional. The following discussion of
case law in the U.S. and U.K. concerning referee liability will
ground Vowles in a broader historical and jurisdictional context.
III.
CASE LAW IN THE U.S. AND U.K.
The U.S. shares the U.K.’s longstanding reticence toward
holding sports officials liable for personal injuries.
103
Cases con-
cerning amateur referees and players raise similar controver-
sies in the two nations. Unsurprisingly, the U.K. and U.S. have
intertwined legal histories, particularly in tort law. For clarity,
this section will first discuss U.K. case law and proceed to a dis-
cussion of U.S. case law.
100. P. David Howe, An Ethnography of Pain and Injury in Professional
Rugby Union: The Case of Pontypridd RFC, 36 I
NT’L REV. FOR THE SOC. OF
SPORT 289, 292 (2001).
101. Id. at 295. Howe conducted several revealing interviews with rugby
players and their troubled road to professionalism. Id. at 289. One player
confided to Howe that “You may think I’m thick, but the pressure for me to
play is unbelievable. When no fracture showed [on the X-ray] I thought hell it
[the pain] must be in my mind...Now with the injury like it is I may lose my
spot on the Welsh squad.” Id. at 297.
102. Id. at 298.
103. “On the whole, although referees are often included as defendants in
personal injury suits resulting from sporting activities, they are rarely found
negligent.”
WALTER T. CHAMPION JR., FUNDAMENTALS OF SPORTS LAW §4:1
(2004).
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1323
A. Vowles v. Evans
1. Events Leading to Vowles’ Injury
Vowles sustained his injury while playing hooker for the
Llanharan Rugby Football Club 2nd against the Tondu Rugby
Football Club 2
nd
XV on a boggy field in the winter of 1998.
104
The players and Evans, the referee, were all amateurs and the
match was “hard fought” but “fair.”
105
The muddy field caused a
large number of set scrums and, within thirty minutes of play,
the Llanharan opposing loosehead prop dislocated his shoul-
der.
106
Llanharan had only an untrained front row forward to
replace their injured player and had nobody trained as a front
row forward in the second or back row of their pack.
107
Evans knew that Llanharan had no replacement on the bench
and told the team forward that he could either replace the front
row forward from a player within the scrum or have non-
contestable scrummages for the rest of the game.
108
An inexpe-
rienced player within the scrum said he would “give it a go” as a
front row forward since he had played the position a few years
earlier.
109
Evans accepted Llanharan’s decision and did not ask
about the replacement’s previous experience.
110
During a scrum
later in the game, Vowles collapsed and suffered permanent
incomplete tetraplegia and was confined to a wheelchair.
111
104. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 243.
105. Id. at 243.
106. Id. at 243. A loosehead is the prop in a scrum because his head is out-
side the other team’s tighthead prop’s shoulder. Scrum.com: The Perfect
Pitch for Rugby, at http://www.scrum.com/dictionary (last visited June 25,
2004).
107. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 243-44.
108. Id. at 244. A non-contestable scrummage is the same as a scrummage
except that there is “no contest for the ball, the team putting in the ball must
win it, and neither team is permitted to push.” Id. at 245. Evans’s course of
action is promulgated by the 1997 version of the “Laws of the Game” of the
Council of the International Rugby Football Board, which mandate that “in
the event of a front row forward being ordered off, the referee…will confer
with the captain…to determine whether another player is suitably
trained/experience to take his position…when there is no other front row for-
ward available…then the game will continue with non-contestable scrum-
mages.” Id. at 245.
109. Id.
110. Id.
111. Id.
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1324 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
2. The Court’s Decision in Vowles v. Evans
In rendering its decision, the Court applied the test of duty
used in Caparo Plc. v. Dickman to Vowles and asserted that the
relationship between Vowles and Evans was sufficiently proxi-
mate and that it was reasonably foreseeable that Evans’ failure
to exercise reasonable care may have resulted in Vowles’ injury.
Evans breached this duty when he failed to take reasonable
care for the safety of the Tondu and Llanharan players by “sen-
sible and appropriate application of the laws of rugby.”
112
The
debate centered on whether it was reasonable to impose a duty
of care on an amateur referee for rugby players.
113
In determin-
ing what was reasonable, the lower court did not consider Ev-
ans’ amateur status relevant because he was extensively
trained and because an amateur front row forward is more
likely to sustain serious injuries than his professional counter-
part.
114
The court held, further, that amateur rugby players are
“young men mostly with limited income” who should not have to
bear the cost of their injuries due to a referee’s negligence.
115
In
response to the defense’s arguments, the court contended that
imposing a duty on Evans was “consistent with the spirit of the
laws of rugby” which is “an important part of Welsh culture.”
116
3. United Kingdom Referee Negligence Case Law
Vowles had two high-profile precedents concerning severe
rugby injuries: Agar v. Hyde, and Smoldon v. Whitworth &
Nolan.
117
The Welsh Rugby Union relied on Agar, where the
High Court of Australia held that the International Rugby
Football Board owed no duty of care to frame the rules of the
game to reduce the risk of severe spinal injuries during
112. Id. “The threshold of liability must properly be a high one.” Id. at 252.
113. Id.
114. Id. at 247.
115. Id. The court maintained that the Welsh Rugby Union was well-funded
enough to insure itself and its referees in the event of players’ claims despite
the defense’s insistence that the Union was so heavily in debt that public li-
ability insurers were contemplating discontinuing sporting injury coverage
Id.
116. Id.
117. See Agar v. Hyde [2000] H.C.A. 41, available at 2000 WL 1249551; see
Smoldon v. Whitworth & Nolan [1997] P.I.Q.R. P133.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1325
scrums.
118
Vowles looked, also, to the Smoldon holding which
imposed a duty of care on a referee to enforce the rules and
“…ensure that the players were not exposed to unnecessary risk
of injury” when a seventeen-year-old rugby player broke his
neck during a collapsed scrum.
119
The Agar and Smoldon deci-
sions questioned whether a rugby player assumes the risk of his
or her injuries by engaging in high-risk play.
120
The Agar court
discussed the confusion of determining whether a rugby play is
“rough” or “dangerous” and a concurring judge contended that
the plaintiffs “could not possibly have been ignorant” of the pos-
sibility of injury.
121
The WRU pointed to these cases to absolve itself of duty, yet
the Vowles court found that the Agar decision turned on the
attenuated relationship between the plaintiffs and the defen-
dants.
122
The court distinguished Vowles from Agar because the
relationship between Evans and Vowles was far closer than
that of the Agar plaintiffs and the Board.
123
In rendering its de-
cision, the Vowles court contended that the Agar court did not
want to find that the Board, as promulgator of rules, owed a
duty to each rugby player in the world.
124
The court contended
that Vowles was more analogous to Smoldon because it estab-
lished a duty of care for rugby referees with liability grounded
in “full account…of the factual context in which a referee exer-
cises his functions.”
125
Thus, the liability threshold that the
Vowles court inherited from Smoldon was high and would not
118. See Agar, H.C.A. 41 at 60.
119. See Smoldon, P.I.Q.R. at P140.
120. “[Rugby] is a tough, highly physical game, probably more so than any
other game widely played in this country. It is not a game for the timid or
fragile. Anyone participating in serious competitive games of rugby football
must expect to receive his or her fair share of knocks, bruises, strains, abra-
sions, and minor bony [sic] injuries.” Smoldon, P.I.Q.R. at P135.
121. See Agar, H.C.A. 41 at 46.
122. Id.
123. Id.
124. See Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 250.
125. Smoldon, P.I.Q.R. at P138-39. The Union attempted to distinguish
Smoldon because the players were very young, but to no avail. Vowles, E.C.C.
240 at 250. The Court held that the age difference of the players does not
determine whether a referee owes any duty of care to the players. Id.
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1326 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
hold a referee liable for errors of judgment or oversights “in the
context of a fast-moving and vigorous contest.”
126
B. United States Referee Negligence Case Law
The standard of care in the U.S. and the U.K. is similar: a
referee has a duty to supervise a game properly and to enforce
safety rules.
127
By far the most high-profile U.S. case involving
referee negligence in professional sports is Brown v. National
Football League, where the referee threw a penalty flag
weighted with pellets which hit Brown in the eye and ended his
career.
128
Less publicized, though fiercely contested, in the U.S.
are cases like Vowles brought by amateur athletes against vol-
unteer referees. In Vowles, the dissenting judges maintained
that it was in the public interest to shield amateur referees
from liability in negligence so as to encourage voluntarism in
officiating.
129
Fearing the same, many states in the U.S. have
126. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 250.
127. See C
HAMPION supra, note 103, §4.1. See Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 251-52.
128. Brown v. National Football League, 219 F. Supp. 2d 372 (S.D.N.Y.
2002). Brown, unlike Vowles, brought his action unsuccessfully in contract,
yet the opinion suggests that he potentially could prevail in state court under
a negligence theory against the referee and the NFL. Id. at 389-90. The cir-
cumstances and extent of Brown’s and Vowles’s injuries differ greatly. While
both Brown and Vowles lost their careers in sports because of their injuries,
Brown’s injury was far less severe than Vowles’s. His sight loss prevents him
from playing professional football, but not from a broad swath of employment,
unlike Vowles who is, confined to a wheelchair. Further, Brown’s injury was
the direct result of a referee’s momentary carelessness while Vowles’s resulted
from a series of decisions in which he, his team captain, and fellow players
were complicit. See also Darrell M. Halcomb Lewis, An Analysis of Brown v.
National Football League, 9
VILL. SPORTS & ENT. L. J. 263 (2002). There are
additional circumstantial differences between Brown and Vowles rooted
largely in the distinctions between American and British sports culture.
Brown was a highly-compensated, unionized, professional football player su-
ing an enormously profitable sports league. Questions of contract and work-
ers compensation governed the holding in Brown without addressing the ac-
tion’s viability in tort. Vowles was a modestly-compensated amateur rugby
player suing a profitable sports league with an enormous fan base. In render-
ing his decision, Lord Phillips noted that “Amateur rugby players will be
young men mostly with very limited income” and that the Welsh Rugby Un-
ion, with its gate receipts and television contracts, was the best party to bear
the cost of Vowles injury. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 248.
129. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 248.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1327
adopted a gross negligence or recklessness standard for ama-
teur referee liability.
130
The notion of referee negligence, at times called “malprac-
tice,” is a less recent phenomenon in the U.S. While this Note
concentrates on referee liability for players’ personal injuries,
several commentators identify a broad range of emotional and
economic injuries resulting from officials’ carelessness.
131
U.S.
courts are generally hesitant to allow plaintiffs to recover in
referee liability actions, though some courts have recognized the
grave impact careless refereeing can have on players and
coaches.
132
Typically, players in the U.S. bring actions against
referees in negligence, though players may also allege criminal
and statutory violations or breach of contract.
133
Carabba v. Anacortes School District sets the standard of care
for sports officials in the U.S. The Carabba court held a wres-
tling referee liable for negligently supervising a match where
the plaintiff was paralyzed by his opponent’s illegal move.
134
The standard of care in Carabba was that of an ordinary pru-
130. This Note uses “amateur” fluidly as it is defined fluidly in the U.S.: in
some states, a referee must not receive any compensation to have amateur
status while other states permit nominal compensation within the amateur
category. See generally Lewis, supra note 129.
131. See generally Scott Parven, Judgment Calls – Sports Officials in Court,
9
ENT. & SPORTS LAW, 9 (1991). Interesting cases claiming economic injuries
include Georgia High School Association v. Waddell, 285 S.E.2d 7 (Ga. 1991)
(defendant verdict on appeal in action brought by players’ parents for referee
negligently imposing a penalty that cost the team their spot in the state play-
offs) and Bain v. Gillespie, 357 N.W.2d 47 (Iowa Ct. App. 1984) (defendant
verdict on appeal in action where store owner who sold University of Iowa
apparel and souvenirs sued a referee for losses he sustained because of the
referee’s bad call that resulted in Iowa’s loss to Purdue University).
132. In Tilelli v. Christenberry, the court held that a boxer who alleged neg-
ligent officiating had standing to sue because the referee’s action “affect[ed]
his record so prejudically…[that it] impair[ed] economic rights and interests
sufficiently to give petitioner legal standing to sue.” Tilelli v. Christenberry,
120 N.Y.S.2d 697, 699 (1953).
133. See Shlomi Feiner, The Personal Liability of Sports Officials: Don’t
Take the Game into Your Own Hands, Take Them to Court!, 4 S
PORTS L. J.
213, 214-15 (1997).
134. Carabba v. Anacortes School Dist. No. 103, 72 Wash.2d 939 (1967)
(referee glanced away from the match while he was tending to a mat that
went askew, a task within his enumerated duties, when the plaintiff’s oppo-
nent used a “full-Nelson” in violation of the rules and paralyzed the plaintiff).
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1328 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
dent referee.
135
Officials may be liable for negligence when their
conduct does not comport to this standard of care and injures
participants.
136
A referee’s scope of duty includes assessing
whether a field is suitable for playing, whether inclement
weather poses a risk to players, equipment inspection, and de-
termining whether equipment is being worn or used properly by
players.
137
A referee’s primary duties, however, are to enforce
the rules of the game and control players’ conduct.
138
The
Vowles decision also identifies these twin duties as primary for
officials in the U.K.
139
These duties are intertwined because
referees have authority over players’ conduct by virtue of their
duty to enforce rules.
140
Though longstanding, Carabba’s “prudent referee” standard
has been widely contested. Many courts and commentators ad-
vocate, instead, for a recklessness or gross negligence liability
threshold.
141
Liability in contact sports is a complicated ques-
tion because of inherent participatory risks.
142
Many state laws
hold referees liable only in gross negligence, recklessness, or
intentional conduct.
143
The public policy for an ordinary negli-
gence standard is preventive in that it encourages officials to be
cautious in executing their duties.
144
A gross negligence stan-
dard risks barring recovery to plaintiffs who sustain injury for a
referee’s deviation from the standard of care that falls short of
gross negligence.
145
Conversely, a negligence standard for liabil-
ity may impose substantial liability on a volunteer or amateur
referee who officiates simply for the love of the sport.
146
135. See CHAMPION, supra note 103, at §4.1.
136. See Feiner, supra note 133, at 215.
137. Id. at 218.
138. See R
OBERT C. BERRY & GLENN M. WONG, 2 LAW AND BUSINESS OF THE
SPORTS INDUSTRIES: COMMON ISSUES IN AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
512 (2d ed. 1993).
139. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 251.
140. See Feiner supra note 133, at 218.
141. See id. at 219.
142. See id. at 220.
143. See Kenneth W. Biedzynski, Sports Officials Should Only Be Liable for
Acts of Gross Negligence: Is That the Right Call?, 11 U.
MIAMI ENT. & SPORTS
L. REV. 375, 376 (1994) [hereinafter Biedzynski, Is That the Right Call?].
144. Feiner, supra note 133, at 220.
145. Id.
146. Id. at 221.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1329
Defendant’s counsel in Vowles expressed the same concern
that amateur referees would stop volunteering their time to
avoid liability.
147
The court dismissed this concern and noted
that the injury in Vowles was the result of Evans’s failure to
implement a rule and that such a failure would be rare, particu-
larly in a game with many inherent risks taking place during
play.
148
A referee’s conduct during and apart from play are held
to different standards in the U.K.
149
Evans’ decision was delib-
erate and outside of the context of play, unlike the wrestling
referee in Carabba.
150
A U.S. expert on referee liability has ad-
vocated making this distinction in his argument for grounding
referee liability in recklessness.
151
He suggests a two-tiered ap-
proach for recovery: a player must prove that a referee acted in
reckless disregard for his or her safety and make a separate
determination of whether the defendant’s conduct was “part of
the game.”
152
In doing so, courts would reduce the threshold for
referee liability from simple negligence without equating the
duty referees owe to players with the duty players owe to one
another.
153
These standards govern who should take care in sporting
events by imposing tort liability on the party responsible for
players’ injuries. The importance of this determination is not
confined to athletes, coaches, spectators, or fans but articulates
the boundaries of individual responsibility in risky endeavors.
In Vowles, the players were engaged in what the dissent de-
scribed as an “inherently risky” sport and chose a dangerous
play to maximize their ability to earn points. The assumption of
147. See Paul Cullen, Sports Litigation a “Growing Trend,” 6/14/03 IR. TIMES
8, 2003, available at WL 56611675.
148. Id. at 4.
149. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 253.
150. Cullen, supra note 147.
151. Mel Narol, Sports Participant with Limited Litigation: The Emerging
Reckless Disregard Standard, 1 S
ETON HALL J. SPORT L. 29, 30 (1991).
152. See id. at 39-40.
153. In the U.S., players have a duty not to act with reckless disregard of
another player’s safety. See C
HAMPION, supra note 103, §4:1. Whether a
player acts with reckless disregard is heavily contested, particularly in the
context of inherently dangerous sports like rugby. The duty of care a player
owes a referee is the same as his or her duty to another player. Id. Thus, in
some states and in the U.K., the referee is the only person on the field who
faces potential liability for negligence.
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1330 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
risk defense and volenti non fit injuria defenses in the U.S. and
the U.K., respectively, have a potent history in sports law, yet
the Vowles majority did not give that traditional defense much
credence. In placing the responsibility to protect players from
one another in the referee’s hands, rather than the players’, the
Vowles court articulates the value of physically risky competi-
tion to British culture. Several scholars have explored the in-
herent politics of tort law because it determines whether a
plaintiff will be compensated for their injury, who should com-
pensate the plaintiff, and how much that plaintiff’s injuries are
worth.
154
Sports law in the U.S. and U.K. is particularly fertile
ground for such inquiries.
C. The Absence of Traditional Tort Defenses in Agar, Smoldon,
and Vowles
Despite different holdings, Agar, Smoldon, and Vowles share
similar factual circumstances. A particularly curious trait
these cases share is that no plaintiff brought an action against a
fellow player or captain despite the fact that each claimant sus-
tained injuries because of rough bodily contact and captains’
decisions.
155
In this sense, claimants locate the cause, both in
fact and proximate, with agents who are not team-affiliated.
This relocation of cause is particularly interesting because the
flip side of referee negligence when players hurt each other is,
of course, assumption of risk and contributory negligence. These
defenses were unsuccessful in Vowles, curiously, even though a
series of decisions led to Vowles’s injury. Why hold a referee
negligent when there are, potentially, several tortfeasors? The
court’s lack of attention to these defenses suggests a broader
policy reason for hesitating to hold athletes responsible for the
154. See generally CONAGHAN & MANSELL, supra note 11, at 3. One tort
expert argues that in the U.K. “At bottom, the rules of tort law reflect policy
decisions by the judiciary about the interests that are protected and the type
of conduct that is sanctioned.” W
RIGHT, supra note 11, at 3. Wright argues,
further, that, because the U.K. lacks a bill of rights, tort law has been a locus
for determining which rights to protect. Id.
155. A player injured because of a deliberate and unprovoked assault may
recover from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Silver, supra note
95, at 557. A player cannot receive double compensation, meaning that if a
player prevails in a civil action against another player, the damages he or she
receives will offset Board compensation. Id.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1331
harm they do to one another. A historical and comparative
overview of the defenses in British and American law is instruc-
tive in probing this broad policy in each country.
IV.
VOLENTI NON FIT INJURIA, ASSUMPTION OF RISK,
AND CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE DEFENSES IN THE
U.K. AND U.S.
A. Volenti Non Fit Injuria and Contributory
Negligence in the U.K.
Tort defenses in the U.K. typically fall into three categories:
those based on plaintiff conduct that proportionally relieve the
defendant of liability, those based on defendant’s contention
that the plaintiff assumed the risk of injury, and those excusing
the defendant’s conduct.
156
The first type of defense is called
contributory negligence and was codified by the Law Reform
Act, 1945.
157
Under the Act, the court must apportion liability.
158
Contributory negligence is available when a plaintiff’s careless-
ness contributes to his or her injury, even if a defendant is en-
tirely responsible for the events leading to the plaintiff’s inju-
ries.
159
A particularly delicate aspect of contributory negligence
156. CLERK & LINDSELL ON TORTS §3-57 (Anthony Dugdale, ed., 18
th
ed.
2000). This Note will be concerned with the first two types of defenses.
157. The Law Reform Act maintains that
Where any person suffers damage as the result partly of his own fault
and partly of the fault of any other person or persons, a claim in re-
spect of that damage shall not be defeated by reason of the fault of
the person suffering the damage, but the damages recoverable in re-
spect thereof shall be reduced to such extent as the court thinks just
and equitable…
Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act, 1945, 8 & 9, Geo. 6, c. 28, §1(1)
(Eng.). The Act broadened the use of the defense beyond nuisance on the
highway and statutory duty, which had been the exclusive torts for which the
contributory negligence defense was available. Id. at §3-28.
158. C
LERK AND LINDSELL, supra note 156, §3-23.
159. Id. A classic example of when a plaintiff contributes to injuries rather
than to tortious conduct occurs most frequently when a plaintiff sustains inju-
ries in a car accident caused entirely by the defendant’s negligence, yet the
extent of the plaintiff’s injuries was lengthened by his or her not wearing a
seatbelt. Id. If a plaintiff sustains an injury where his or her negligence
would not have affected the injury, such as if he or she was burned when a car
exploded while not wearing a seat belt, then a contributory negligence defense
does not apply. Id.
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1332 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
is causation, which many scholars merge.
160
The 1945 Act ap-
plies the following principles with respect to causation and con-
tributory negligence: the same rules of causation should apply
to determining whether the plaintiff’s carelessness contributed
to her injury and whether the defendant caused the injuries.
Whether the plaintiff’s carelessness preceded or followed the
defendant’s wrongdoing is irrelevant. Foreseeability of the
manner of injury is also irrelevant.
161
Plaintiffs’ potential culpability extends to intentional torts. A
plaintiff’s carelessness must be sufficiently careless as com-
pared to the defendant’s wrongdoing to result in fault on the
plaintiff’s part. Under the 1945 Act, “fault” includes the plain-
tiff’s intentional acts where the defendant is duty-bound to pre-
vent the plaintiff’s self-inflicted harm.
162
Contributory negli-
gence, in this context, turns on foreseeability of harm to one-
self.
163
If a plaintiff should have foreseen that he may suffer in-
jury through his carelessness and proceeds nonetheless, he is
contributorily negligent.
164
A potentially negligent plaintiff is
held to an objectively reasonable standard,
165
which includes
taking precautions to guard against others’ carelessness.
166
A
plaintiff taken by surprise by a defendant’s conduct who be-
lieved, reasonably, that she may proceed safely is held to a
lower standard of care.
167
160. Id.
161. Id. §3-26. (“Broad common sense should be used to judge cause and
effect on the facts of each particular case.”).
162. Id. Reeves v. Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis illustrated this
aspect of the 1945 Act when the House of Lords held a decedent who commit-
ted suicide in police custody contributorily negligent after he had been de-
clared a suicide risk. Although the police had a duty to protect the decedent
from himself, the decedent was sane when he killed himself and, thus, had
some responsibility for his death. See Reeves v. Commissioner of Police for
the Metropolis, [1999] 3 W.L.R. 365 (Eng.).
163. C
LERK AND LINDSELL, supra note 156, §3-37.
164. Id.
165. Id.
166. Id. §3-39.
167. Id.
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1. The Failure of Volenti and Contributory Negligence
Defenses in Vowles
The nuances of contributory negligence defenses are particu-
larly important in contact sports cases. A fast-moving game
with constant risk of injury presents a host of possible tortfea-
sors depending on the moment when the injury took place. In a
sense, imposing liability under such circumstances is a tempo-
ral decision. In Vowles, Evans’s decision to allow the team cap-
tains to proceed with an uncontested scrum occurred apart from
the game and, thus, was not subject to a lower standard of care.
In eschewing contributory negligence and assumption of risk
defenses, the Court broadened the temporal span and deemed
Evans’s decision the cause-in-fact and proximate cause of
Vowles’s injuries. Had the Court constricted its analysis to the
moment of injury, it could have found cause-in-fact and proxi-
mate cause in the captains’ decision to engage in a more dan-
gerous game or with the Tondu player’s decision to play regard-
less of his inexperience.
The broadest temporal approach the Court could take would,
of course, consider rugby players’ decision to engage in an in-
herently risky game as volenti non fit injuria, or assumption of
risk. The Nineteenth Century Smith v. Baker case declared
that “One who has invited or assented to an act being done to-
wards him cannot, when he suffers from it, complain of it as a
wrong.”
168
The Vowles defendants would have had to prove
three things to bring a successful volenti defense: first, that
Vowles agreed to absolve the Rugby Union from legal responsi-
bility for its negligence, second, that Vowles acted freely and
voluntarily, and, third, that Vowles had full knowledge of the
risks.
This high threshold makes a defendant’s successful use of vo-
lenti rare and difficult – and perhaps rightfully so. Volenti non
fit injuria differs from the defense of contributory negligence in
that a volenti defense denies, rather than apportions, liability
and damages. Defendants’ reliance on volenti defenses has de-
creased significantly since the 1945 Act’s enactment because
courts could apportion culpability rather than take an all-or-
168. Smith v. Baker, [1891] A.C. 325, 360 (Eng.).
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1334 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
nothing approach to liability and damages.
169
In contact sports
like rugby, players are typically taken to consent impliedly to
bodily contact occurring within the context of the game.
170
This
becomes a murkier question, however, in sports as inherently
risky as rugby.
Vowles illuminates this tension between consent and volenti
defenses. In Vowles, the central question was whether Evans
had a duty to amateur players and whether Evans breached
that duty by not insisting on non-contestable scrums.
171
The
absence of a strong contributory negligence defense is curious
under Vowles’s circumstances.
172
Evans attempted, unsuccess-
fully, to balance his duty as guardian of the players with allow-
ing players to compete as heartily as they wished. Evans’ post-
match notes asserted that “In discussion, I explained to them
that the decision was theirs” and that he “did not want them to
try to put [Johnson] under undue pressure but appreciated that
it was still a contest.”
173
Evans’s assessment of the events lead-
ing to Vowles’ injury reveals much about the policy articulated
by the Vowles court.
A dissenting lower court judge maintained that Evans was
not liable because the Llanharan coach and captain improperly
“allowe[ed] the desire not to forfeit points to override considera-
tions of safety” and that the majority was wrong in holding that
Evans breached his duty by not asking Tondu’s substitute
player whether he was properly trained and experienced.
174
On
appeal, after intense scrutiny of the moments leading to
Vowles’s injury, the Court held that there was sufficient evi-
dence to support a judge’s finding that Evans was the cause of
the accident.
175
The appellate court found Evans “the” cause,
rather than “a” cause, of Vowles’s injury, yet a glance through
the events leading to the ill-fated scrum reveals a range of po-
169. CLERK AND LINDSELL, supra note 156, §3-72.
170. Id. §3-97.
171. Vowles, E.C.C. 240 at 255.
172. Determining referee liability is a case-by-case endeavor in which “full
account must be taken of the factual context in which a referee exercises his
functions, and he could not properly be held liable for errors of judgment,
oversights, or lapses of which any referee might be guilty…The threshold of
liability is a high one. It will not easily be crossed.” Id. at 250.
173. Id. at 253.
174. Id.
175. Id.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1335
tential tortfeasors.
176
Indeed, the appellate court closes its opin-
ion by pointing out that serious injuries are among the game’s
risks that “those who play rugby believe [are] worth taking.”
177
Why would the court acknowledge strong potential for con-
tributory negligence and assumption of risk defenses and still
hold Evans solely responsible? A torts scholar in England
asked the same question and considered the court’s refusal to
consider negligence on the part of Vowles, his team captain, and
inexperienced teammate “extraordinarily paternal” since par-
ticipants in the contest were consenting adults.
178
The same
scholar analyzes Vowles’s potential liability through the lens of
employment law and explores holding Vowles partially liable
because he had free will and chose to engage in what he knew
to be dangerous play and, thus, consented to his injury.
179
Con-
versely, the scholar considers the possibility of Vowles not hav-
ing the option to consent because of the intense pressure he
would have felt to engage in a contested scrum to avoid forfeit-
ing points.
180
A brief comparative glance at the success and failure of simi-
lar defenses in the U.S. where, historically, sports participants
assumed all inherent risks. U.S. courts have not been as will-
ing to hold amateur referees liable. Because this Note tests the
viability of U.S. solutions to referee liability, the next section
will address assumption of risk and contributory negligence
defenses in the U.S.
176. Id.
177. Id. at 259-60.
178. Charlish, supra note 1, at 85. “The fact that in the case in hand, it was
the players themselves who expressly chose the option of continuing the game
with contested scrums, despite knowing that one of the front row forwards
was inexperienced in the position is surely the issue of most interest arising
from this case rather than the extension of referee’s liability to adult rugby
union.” Id. Charlish also raised the provocative point that the game rules
refusing points for an uncontested scrum could have provided another ground
for liability because “It is clear that this rule had an effect on the decision by
the Llanharan players to reject the referee’s offer of uncontested scrums.” Id.
179. Id. For examples of the success and failure of the volenti defense see
Baker, [1891] A.C. at 325 (defense failed in case where worker was injured
when stone fell on him from a crane after his employer told him to work under
the crane) and ICI v. Shatwell [1965] A.C. 656 (defense successful where em-
ployee disobeyed employer’s orders to finish work more quickly and subse-
quently sustained injury).
180. Charlish, supra note 1, at 87.
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1336 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
B. Assumption of Risk and Contributory Negligence in the U.S.
The defenses of volenti non fit injuria, assumption of risk,
and contributory negligence in the U.K. and U.S. are, for the
most part, similar historically and practically. Historically, a
U.S. plaintiff’s contributory negligence was a complete defense
which barred a careless plaintiff from recovery.
181
Modern com-
parative fault regimes permit a careless plaintiff’s recovery if a
defendant’s harm was intentional, wanton, or reckless, if the
defendant had the last clear chance to avoid harm, and if the
defendant was duty-bound to protect the plaintiff from his or
her own risky behavior.
182
Comparative fault reduces a careless
plaintiff’s recovery in proportion to her culpability and is fol-
lowed by most U.S. states as well as the U.K., Australia, Can-
ada, and New Zealand.
183
Like volenti non fit injuria, assumption of risk in the U.S.
bears a strong resemblance to, and is invoked far less often
than, contributory negligence.
184
Traditionally, plaintiffs who
assumed the risk of a defendant’s negligence could not recover,
regardless of age.
185
Courts in the U.S. distinguish between con-
181. DAN B. DOBBS, THE LAW OF TORTS 494 (2000).
182. Id. at 498.
183. Id. at 504. If a plaintiff’s damages are estimated to be $10,000 and the
plaintiff is 25% at fault for her injuries, then the plaintiff recovers $7,500. See
id. Historically, the same plaintiff would not have been able to recover any of
her damages. Id. at 498. There are variations of systems of comparative fault
in the U.S., however, so there is not a systematic national approach to dam-
ages. Id. at 505. In a pure comparative fault state, a plaintiff is never barred
from recovery because of contributory negligence. Id. Under modified com-
parative fault, a plaintiff is barred from recovery if his fault exceeds that of
the defendant or if his fault is equal to or exceeds the defendant’s. Id. In a
modified comparative fault state, a plaintiff who is 51% negligent would be
barred from recovery. Legislators and commentators differ on their views of
which system is more just. Id. at 505-06.
184. Id. at 534. Cases that were traditionally analyzed under the assump-
tion of risk doctrine are now resolved with comparative fault rules by holding
that the defendant had no duty or that the defendant did not breach that
duty. Id. Assumption of risk is sometimes referred to as volenti non fit in-
juria in the U.S., as well. Id. at 535. Scholars and judges hold widely that
assumption of risk should be collapsed within comparative fault and abolished
entirely as a defense. See generally Kenneth W. Simons, Reflections on As-
sumption of Risk,
50 UCLA L. REV. 481, 482 (2002).
185. D
OBBS, supra note 181, at 535. In the Minnesota case Greaves v. Gal-
chutt, eleven and twelve-year-old plaintiffs were barred from recovery because
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1337
tributory negligence and assumption of risk because the former
concerns a plaintiff’s carelessness while the latter concerns a
plaintiff’s risky conduct.
186
Many commentators question this
distinction because it does not account for the necessity of a
plaintiff’s consent to a known risk in raising an assumption of
risk defense.
187
Since the 1950’s, several states have stopped
struggling with the distinction between the two defenses by
merging assumed risk into comparative negligence and avoid-
ing the harsh outcome of a plaintiff being barred from recovery
when he is determined to have assumed the risk.
188
In the sports context, players historically assumed the risk of
all inherent dangers.
189
Courts today typically apply the limited
duty rule, which holds players liable to one another only in the
event of recklessly or intentionally-inflicted injuries.
190
The lim-
ited duty rule posits the negligence of competitive athletes as an
inherent sporting risk.
191
Under the limited duty rule, even a
rule violation does not result in liability per se if such a viola-
tion is typical.
192
The limited duty rule requires consent and
analysis of the reasonable expectations of the parties involved,
which raises questions with rugby injuries where participants’
reasonable expectation may include intense physical aggression
and force.
193
In the U.S. and the U.K., assumption of risk, volenti, and con-
tributory negligence defenses have become limited. In the U.S.,
state legislatures and Congress enacted laws protecting volun-
teer referees from liability as these defenses became less avail-
able.
they assumed the risk of a gun being loaded that they thought was unloaded.
See generally Greaves v. Galchutt, 184 N.W.2d 26 (1971).
186. D
OBBS, supra note 181, at 536.
187. Id.
188. Id. at 539.
189. Id. at 548.
190. Id.
191. Id. at 548-49. In the U.S., the limited duty rule has been applied to
football, hockey, horseracing, soccer, softball, and informal games. Id. at 549.
Commentators suggest, however, that the limited duty rule should be confined
to professional sports. See generally Stephen D. Sugarman, Assumption of the
Risk, 31
VAL. U. L. REV. 833 (1997).
192. Id. at 549.
193. Id. at 550.
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1338 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
V.
U.S. STATE AND FEDERAL EFFORTS TO LIMIT VOLUNTEER
REFEREE LIABILITY
A. State Law and the Federal Volunteer Protection Act
A referee’s “amateur” status in the U.S. is a more complicated
question than in the U.K. Evans was an “amateur” in the eyes
of the Vowles court because he was officiating an amateur
match. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”)
defines amateurism as the “clear line of demarcation between
college athletics and professional sports.”
194
The NCAA’s defini-
tion pivots on an athlete’s non-acceptance of pay or the promise
of pay.
195
Beyond collegiate sports, whether an “amateur” refe-
ree is an employee differs from state to state for workers com-
pensation purposes.
196
Some states determine a referee’s em-
ployment status by whether he or she gets paid or by whether
the match itself is amateur.
197
State and federal laws limit their applicability to volunteer
sports officials and do not address the ambiguity of whether an
official is an amateur. Generally, volunteer referees get far less
press exposure and recognition than their professional counter-
parts.
198
In the late 1980’s, however, lawsuits aimed at volun-
teer referees increased significantly
199
and officials began con-
sidering their inherent liability.
200
The two actions most fre-
quently brought against volunteer officials in the U.S. are
194. National Collegiate Athletic Association Manual, 2002-03, art. 12.01.2.
Available at http://www.ncaa.org/library/membership/division_i_manual/2003-
4_d1_manual.pdf (last visited June 25, 2004).
195. Id. at art. 12.02.3. (“Pay is the receipt of funds, awards, or benefits not
permitted by the governing legislation of the Association for participation in
athletics.”).
196. See Darryll M. Halcomb Lewis, After Further Review, Are Sports Offi-
cials Independent Contractors?, 35 A
M. BUS. L. J. 249, 254 (1998).
197. Id.
198. Parven, supra note 131, at 13. See also Tomsho, More Referees Play
Defense – In the Courts, W
ALL ST. J. Aug. 11, 1989, at B1.
199. See generally Lewis & Forbes, A Proposal for a Uniform Statute Regu-
lating the Liability of Sports Officials for Errors Committed in Sports Con-
tests, 39 D
EPAUL L. REV. 673 (1990).
200. Mel Narol, Protecting the Rights of Sports Officials, TRIAL, Jan., 1987,
at 65. Interestingly, sports officials in the early 1980’s became more common
as plaintiffs, bringing suits in contract, libel, and slander. See Mel Narol and
Dedepoulos, Potential Liability: A Guide to the Referee’s Rights, TRIAL,
March, 1980, at 42.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1339
claims in negligence for players’ personal injuries and for “bad
calls.”
201
While this Note concentrates on personal injury
claims, it is interesting to note that courts rarely find for plain-
tiffs in “bad call” cases, suggesting that courts uphold referee
discretion and expertise as an important social policy.
202
Courts
are not as deferential, however, when referee negligence results
in personal injuries.
203
As one official complained, “[w]e’re sup-
posed to be out there being impartial arbiters of the game. Now
referees spend much of their time thinking about risk aware-
ness.”
204
In response to officials’ fears of liability, many states passed
statutes requiring plaintiffs to prove at least gross negligence in
suits against volunteer or professional referees.
205
Such statutes
were enacted because of larger national concerns with declining
voluntarism.
206
Statutes immunizing, or limiting liability of,
volunteers reflected the centrality of voluntarism to recrea-
201. Id.
202. Lewis & Forbes, supra note 199, at 676. In New York, courts’ reluc-
tance to question referees’ judgments has a longer history: “In more than one
sense, such officials are truly judges of the facts, since they are closer to the
actual situation and characters involved, at the time.” Shapiro v. Queens
County Jockey Club, 53 N.Y.S.2d at 135 (1945). “Surely, their immediate
reactions and decisions of the questions which arose during the conduct of the
sport should receive greater credence and consideration than possibly the
remote, subsequent matter-of-fact observation by a court in litigation.” Id. at
138. See also Tilleli, 120 N.Y.S.2d at 698 (boxer’s victory revoked after the
New York Athletic Commission reviewed referee’s challenged records and
court held that “…judges and referees possess specialized skills and experi-
ence which are essential, because the scoring of a prize fight is not a routine
nor mathematical process, but instead one which is influenced by numerous
factors.").
203. Parvin, supra note 131, at 31.
204. Tomsho, supra note 198, at B1.
205. Parvin, supra note 131, at 53. Among the earliest statutes was Ten-
nessee’s, which immunized officials from suit so long as they were acting
within the scope of their responsibilities : “A sports official who administers
or supervises a sports event at any level of competition should not be liable to
any person or entity in any civil action for damages to a player, participant, or
spectators as a result of the sports’ official’s duties or activities.” Tenn. Code
Ann. §49-7-2101 (1979).
206. See generally Lede E. Dunn, “Protection” of Volunteers Under Federal
Employment Law: Discouraging Voluntarism?, 61 F
ORDHAM L. REV. 451, 452
n.13 (1992) (discusses declining rates of voluntarism).
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1340 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
tional sports in the U.S.
207
Despite state legislatures’ views that
volunteer officials were essential to the success of recreational
sports, there are vast inconsistencies among state laws govern-
ing voluntarism.
208
Some states provide total immunity to vol-
unteer sports officials while others provide qualified immu-
nity.
209
Intrastate volunteer liability may vary.
210
Further,
many state laws have internal inconsistencies.
211
These variations, along with scant statutory interpretation,
spurred Congress to enact the Federal Volunteer Protection Act
(“FVPA”), which sought to safeguard volunteers and non-profit
organizations from liability. The FVPA immunizes volunteers
from liability who act within the scope of their activities with-
out committing a crime of violence, a hate crime, a sex offense
under state law, a civil rights violation, or acting under the in-
fluence of drugs or alcohol.
212
The FVPA also eliminated joint
and several liability for non-economic damages
213
and limited
punitive damages.
214
Many commentators welcomed Congress’s
initiative because the FVPA includes a lucid definition of “vol-
unteer.”
215
Most important in light of Vowles is the FVPA’s focus on
declining voluntarism as a national problem which outweighed
the competing social policy of compensating injured participants
207. See generally Joseph H. King Jr., Exculpatory Agreements for Volun-
teers in Youth Activities – the Alternative to “Nerf” Tiddlywinks, 53 O
HIO ST. L.
J. 683, 686-87 (1992) (“It is unthinkable that we could afford to pay for the
services currently provided by volunteers.”). For an interesting article argu-
ing against immunity for Little League coaches, see Jamie Brown, Legislators
Strike Out: Volunteer Little League Coaches Should Not Be Immune from Tort
Liability, 7 S
ETON HALL J. OF SPORT L. 559, 569 (1997).
208. Parvin, supra note 131, at 327-28.
209. Id. at 327.
210. Id. at 326.
211. Kenneth Biedzynski, The Federal Volunteer Protect Act: Does Congress
Want to Play Ball?, 23 S
ETON HALL. LEGIS. J. 319 (1999) [hereinafter Biedzyn-
ski, Does Congress Want to Play Ball?].
212. Federal Volunteer Protection Act of 1997, 42 U.S.C.A. §14503(a)(1)
(1997).
213. Id.
214. Id. §14503(e)(1). Under the FVPA, a plaintiff may not recover punitive
damages unless he or she “establishes by clear and convincing evidence that
the harm was proximately caused by…willful or criminal misconduct, or a
conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the individual
harmed.” Id.
215. Biedzynski, Does Congress Want to Play Ball?, supra note 211, at 344.
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1341
in recreational sports. As one commentator points out, the
FVPA may unfairly bar plaintiffs bringing meritorious claims
from recovering.
216
The FVPA and state statutes emphasize the
centrality of volunteers to recreational sports in the U.S., yet
fail to address the possibility of a decline in sports participation
if players are barred from compensation because of a referee’s
negligence. The Act’s blind spot is particularly curious because
state and federal legislation is aimed largely at youth sports.
217
This distinction is important in considering the applicability
of U.S. law to referee liability in the Vowles context: the stakes
for an amateur rugby player with potentially professional aspi-
rations are very different from those in U.S. youth sports.
218
The
performative aspects of rugby in the U.K. are crucial to its
commercial success. Conversely, amateur sports in the U.S.,
outside of the context of college sports, generate far less public-
ity and revenue.
219
Individual participants in amateur sports in
the U.S. may enjoy a riskier game, but the level of risk does not
enhance a participant’s national reputation or livelihood. In
Vowles, rugby was in such a state of flux that a judgment in the
WRU’s favor would have left Vowles bereft of a potential future
in professional rugby after he took risks necessary to securing
WRU’s fan base.
VI.
CONCLUSION
In both the U.S. and the U.K., sports have enormous cultural
resonance that exceed the boundaries of the playing field. Refe-
rees play a unique role in sports in both nations as they are,
presumably, the single entity not invested in which team pre-
216. See generally Henry Cohen, The Volunteer Protection Act of 1997, 45
FED. LAW. 40 (1998).
217. See generally Biedzynski, Is That the Right Call?, supra note 143.
218. See generally Hayden Opie, The Sport Administrator’s Charter: Agar v.
Hyde, 12 S
ETON HALL LEGIS. J. 199 (2001) (Opie explores alternative motives
for the Agar court’s decision not to hold the IRFB liable, all stemming from
international sports bodies’ desire to increase spectatorship.).
219. Of course, there have been highly-publicized incidents of violence in
youth sports in the U.S. See generally Douglas E. Abrams, The Challenge
Facing Parents and Coaches in Youth Sports: Assuring Children Fun and
Equal Opportunity, 8 V
ILL. SPORTS & ENT. L. J. 253 (2002). One cannot deny,
however, that these skirmishes, though violent, do not approach the magni-
tude of spectator melees in the U.K. which led, ultimately, to legislation cur-
tailing spectator violence. Football Spectators Act 1989, c. 37 (Eng.).
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1342 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
vails. In contact sports, they are simultaneously participant
and spectator, active when they run up and down the field
alongside players, yet detached when they make swift, impar-
tial decisions in the midst of intense competition. Whether
referees are held to a professional standard of liability, as in
Vowles, or whether their tort liability is relaxed for public policy
reasons under U.S. state law determines who will bear the cost
of players’ personal injuries.
The WRU’s legal team criticized Vowles because of its risk to
the WRU and, they argued, the Court’s designation of the WRU
as the appropriate cost-bearer was inappropriate in an amateur
context.
220
This distinction between amateurism and profes-
sionalism should not, however, determine the standard of care
that the WRU and referees must meet. Professionalization
placed an enormous amount of pressure on professional and
amateur rugby players to win and risk grave injury in the proc-
ess.
221
The WRU’s history of shortchanging players and mis-
managing teams suggests their historical reluctance to protect
players, both amateur and professional, from injury. The fluid-
ity between amateur and professional rugby and the ascent of
amateurs to professional status requires a uniform standard of
care to protect rugby players at all levels.
Further, since the Vowles “windfall,” few of the WRU’s fears
have been realized. For example, no amateur rugby players
have sued the WRU successfully since Vowles.
222
The WRU’s
fears of bankruptcy also never came to pass. After Vowles, sev-
220. James Pritchard, Amateur Rugby Could be Crippled by Injury Ruling,
Appeal Court Told,´T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Feb. 25, 2003 (“…Mr. Leighton-
Williams started the appeal against…[the] ruling…in [the Court’s] judgment
[they] concluded that as the game was funded by gate receipts and television
revenutes, there was no reason the WRU could not pay increased premiums to
insure their referees. But for second team rugby at this level, I have to say
there is not a lot by way of gate receipts.”).
221. Id.
222. In the recent Allport v. Wilbraham case heard in the Birmingham
County Court in December of 2003, a catastrophically injured amateur rugby
player failed in his claim against the referee, prompting the RFU to note that
“Notwithstanding the high profile decisions of Smolden and Vowles, these
claims remain difficult to prove and with the appropriate evidence a success-
ful defence can be maintained.” Allport v. Wilbraham is unreported, but de-
tails about the case are available at the Rugby Football Union’s website at
http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/RFUHome.Refereeing_Detail/StoryI
D/5522 (last visited June 27, 2004).
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2004] REFEREE NEGLIGENCE IN THE U.K. 1343
eral Welsh junior games were cancelled because referees hesi-
tated to officiate for fear of being sued.
223
Interestingly, parents’
fears of their children playing a violent game also contributed to
the cancellations.
224
As a result, the Sports Council for Wales
provided grants for referee training.
225
To date, the WRU has
increased the training of nearly 800 referees.
226
One commenta-
tor regards these post-Vowles measures as a “boost for Welsh
rugby” rather than the death knell the WRU heralded.
227
Though amateur players like Vowles still shoulder a heavy
burden, the WRU, along with other rugby unions, has taken
significant measures to shield themselves from liability by in-
suring player safety.
228
Unlike the FVPA in the United States,
Wales has managed, in the wake of Vowles, to support volunta-
rism without barring amateur rugby players from suing in tort.
Such organizational nuances mean that amateur British rugby
is not amenable, at present, to U.S. legislative solutions. Al-
though voluntarism is a concern in Wales, the nation’s approach
to resolving this conundrum has been to insure player safety
and referee training rather than simply to shield amateur refe-
223. After Vowles, many junior games in Wales were cancelled because refe-
rees hesitated to officiate in a hostile legal climate. S. Thomas, Litigation
Fear Brings Shortage of Refs, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Jan. 15, 2003 (“Teachers
who voluntarily referee school matches at all age groups up to second-year
sixth levels are becoming increasingly loathe to officiate – such is their con-
cern they may be open to increasing litigation.”). Evans himself vowed never
to referee again after the House of Lords denied the WRU’s appeal. Vowles
Official: I’ll Never Referee Again, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Aug. 1, 2003 (“I would
never pick up a whistle again. I wouldn’t want to put myself or my family
through this again.”).
224. Thomas, supra note 223 (“Parents, too, are becoming anxious and are
asking themselves if they should let their sons play a game of sometimes vio-
lent contact.”).
225. Id. (“With the WRU being more than £73 m. in debt and strapped for
cash, the SCW agreed to fund the training programme to the tune of
£39,600.”).
226. Id.
227. Id. (Rob Yeman, the WRU’s referee director noted that “For many
years, recruitment and retention of referees has been one of our biggest prob-
lems. There was a lot of concern with the verdict in the Vowles case. But now
we can ensure referees are covered by the WRU umbrella.”).
228. The Irish RFU ordered passive, rather than contested, scrums after
Vowles. See Passive Scrums Order for Ireland, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Mar. 14,
2003.
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1344 BROOK. J. INT’L L. [Vol. 29:3
rees and organizations from liability.
229
At this stage of profes-
sionalization, the WRU is the most appropriate bearer of in-
jured players’ costs. Immunizing volunteer referees from suit
would leave injured players little recourse while permitting the
WRU to reap the financial benefits of the spectacle of competi-
tive, aggressive rugby play.
In this sense, contrary to public outcry in both the U.S. and
U.K., the tort system benefited all parties in the wake of
Vowles. At this pivotal moment in Welsh rugby and national
history, Vowles provides the most just approach to determining
compensation for gravely injured amateur athletes.
Erin Elizabeth McMurray
*
229. The Sports Council and Wales’s Director of National Development
noted that
The Sports Council is committed to supporting sports volunteers in
Wales. They encourage young people, and others, to take part in
sport. We are almost entirely dependent on volunteers. We were
concerned a number of junior fixtures had to be cancelled at the end
of last season, so we looked at the best way to increase the number of
qualified referees as soon as possible.”
Andy Howell, Council Boost for Referees’ Training, T
HE WESTERN MAIL, Sept.
5, 2003.
* BA., Smith College (1994); M.A., New York University (1998); J.D.,
Brooklyn Law School (Expected 2005). I would like to thank John C. Knapp,
Pavani Thagirisa, Veronica McGinnis, Jennifer Brillante, Brady Priest, Jane
McRayde and James Killelea for their invaluable editorial help. I would also
like to thank Professor Anthony Sebok for his insight throughout the process.
Any shortcomings in this Note are my own. I would also like to thank my
family, especially my father – surely, his 30-year refereeing stint inspired my
interest in this Note’s topic.
