Batsman to pay $700k after girl suffers eye injury at Manly Life Saving Club
AN INFORMAL game of indoor cricket at Manly Life Saving Club ended the career of an aspiring Olympian after a ball hit her in the eye, the NSW District Court heard. The former elite gymnast has been awarded $700,000.
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AN informal game of indoor cricket at Manly Life Saving Club ended the career of an aspiring Olympian after a ball hit her in the eye, the NSW District Court heard.
The batsman, Scott White, was this week ordered to pay nearly $700,000 in damages after former elite gymnast Newbie Redding, now 20, sued for negligence.
A separate claim against the surf club was settled out of court.
The court heard Ms Redding, who was 16 at the time, was ranked in the top three gymnasts in Australia for some disciplines and eighth overall and had dreams of going to the 2016 Olympics.
However, her life changed in January 2014 when she was hit in the eye by a “particularly hard tennis ball” during an informal game between young male club members in the function room on the first floor.
Ms Redding was not involved in the game. She had been helping to run the club’s barbecue and was texting her parents for a lift home when she was hit.
The court heard there were no sides playing the game, no runs were being scored or counted and that all of the boys were only hitting the ball carefully, because they were all aware that it was “a quite volatile area with the glass surrounding it”.
But the impact of the ball caused Ms Redding’s retina to detach. Despite an operation to reattach it, she is still unable to determine depth or detail, the court heard.
As a result Ms Redding, a high achiever, had to quit competing in gymnastics and surf lifesaving and had been unable to pursue her desired career as a helicopter pilot.
Despite loss of vision, headaches and an aching eye, she achieved a Year 12 ATAR of 97.25 but felt “lost”.
The court heard her left eyelid was saggy, her left eye was often red and in photos it looked like she had a “lazy eye”.
Ms Redding’s mother said before the incident her daughter was “happy, determined, ambitious” but had become sad and withdrawn.
She now works part-time helping indigenous people in the Northern Territory, earning $25 an hour.
District Court judge David Russell SC found that a “reasonable person” in Mr White’s position as batsman would have stopped the game as a precaution.
He ordered Mr White to pay Ms Redding $692,806 in total, including $350,000 for non-economic loss and more than $265,000 for future loss of earning capacity.