By recognizing its own limitations, a judicial system can assist in welcoming in the Spring:
The traditional English village fete received the backing of senior judges [last month] after they threw out a £150,000 damages claim made by a woman who broke her leg in a hole left by a maypole.
The Court of Appeal heard that villagers must be allowed to uphold their centuries-old celebrations without worrying that they will be sued if accidents happen.
Lord Justice Scott Baker said: “If the courts were to set a higher standard of care than what is reasonable, the consequences would quickly be felt.
“There would be no fetes, no maypole dancing and no activities that have come to be a part of the English village green for fear of what might go wrong.”
(Martin Beckford, ” Legal victory for village fetes and maypoles”, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 2).
3 Comments
Though it would have been nice for the May pole participants to have left the commons as intact and undisturbed as possible when they were finished. But poor citizenship and poor social values may not rise to the level of civil negligence.
Just another example of the tragedy of the commons. 🙂
If you had read the whole article, you would have seen that there was evidence that the hole WAS filled in when the maypole was removed. It appears that the softer earth where the hole had been was removed by unknown entities shortly before the incident.
We don’t know how the court would have ruled were there not such evidence.