Court case[1933] 1 KB 205

The defendants owned the Brooklands motor racing track and organised races there. The plaintiff paid for admission and watched a race from a place by the railings at the side of the track. During the race two cars touched; one of them shot up and went over the railings into the crowd, killing two spectators and injuring the plaintiff. No accident of this kind had previously occurred at the track in its many years of use, and the railings and other precautions were those generally thought adequate. The plaintiff sued the club in negligence.

The Court of Appeal held the defendants not liable. A person who pays to watch a dangerous sport such as motor racing takes upon himself the risk of such accidents as are inherent in it and cannot reasonably be guarded against; the terms of the implied contract with the spectators did not require the club to guard against a danger which no one had foreseen and which a reasonable occupier would not have anticipated. The club had taken the precautions a reasonable person would take. The danger was one the spectator must be taken to have accepted, and the verdict for the plaintiff was set aside.