Posted On: August 8, 2004, 12:50 pm CDT

Posted By: Barrie

Those of us sitting outside the US often shake our heads in despair at what the US is doing to the excellent legal system it inherited form the British. In the present case, it seems to me that the Supreme Court is missing the point. It is a long established principle of common law that people who knowingly and voluntarily participate in dangerous activities have to take upon themselves (within reason)the consequences of so doing. A boxer cannot successfully recover from his opponent for a broken nose. He would, however, be able to recover for an injury caused by the ropes giving way, causing him to fall out of the ring and crack his skull, since he may reasonably expect the equipment to be safe. The purpose of RSA 225-A:24 is not, in essence to create new law, but rather to arrest the deplorable erosion of existing law. To try and ring fence the application of this statute as has been done in this case by the Supreme Court merely emphasises how far that erosion has in fact gone. A more enlighten approach would have been to rule that snow tubing is eiusdem generis with "the sport of skiing" and thus to apply the principle clearly intended by the legislature.