Yet another horse rider has been denied personal injury compensation from the Appeal Court in the wake of a head injury she suffered when she was thrown from her mount, accident claim experts recently said.
The courts have spoken for the third time on this issue, as this has been the third case so far in 2012 where injured riders have been precluded from bringing personal injury claims against the owner of the horse that they were injured by. A precedent has now been firmly set on the issue, legal experts say, which will make it nearly impossible for anyone else suffering injuries in similar circumstances to seek compensatory damages, no matter how serious the damage they sustain.
The latest case, which involves a 32 year old native of Milton Keynes that suffers migraines to this day after being thrown from the horse of a friend she had been exercising in March of 2006, was dismissed by Oxford County Court last year. She appealed the decision, but the case was quashed in the Appeal Court on April 3 of this year, with Lord Justice Lewiston remarking that anyone choosing to ride horses must accept the inherent risk that such an activity could see the horse responding contrary to the rider’s intentions or not responding at all to his or her instructions.
Legal experts say that the battle lines have obviously been drawn by the Court of Appeal, as it seems that they have started an offensive campaign to limit the classes of claimants who can pursue compensation as a matter of law.