Legal wrangle over broken neck

They played in opposing teams on the rugby field.

Now they are squaring up in the Western Cape High Court.

Ryand Hattingh from Monte Vista was the hooker in the first team of Labori High School in Paarl before breaking his neck in a match against Stellenbosch High School in 2005.

It is Hattingh’s case that his neck fracture was deliberately caused by the opposing team’s hooker, Alex Roux.

Roux is believed to have incited his team members to perform an illegal and dangerous move, which caused the scrum to collapse on Hattingh, whose neck injury will mean a lifetime of pain.

He reportedly has also since had to give up on his dream of becoming a pilot as a result.

Roux has denied that he was responsible for the injury, saying instead that the collapse of the scrum was due to the way a Labori player drove into it.

He believes that Hattingh’s injury was the result of a tragic accident.

At this stage, only the merits of the case are being argued. The monetary factor will be decided later.

Should Hattingh win, the case could serve as a legal precedent for civil claims against players of any sport who are found to have deliberately injured a player during a game.

Hattingh was present in court on Monday, flanked by his parents. In closing arguments before Judge Burton Fourie, Kosie Olivier, SC, for Hattingh, said that before the scrum began and after the forwards were about to engage, Roux screamed the “code word ‘jack knife’ ”.

“Alex screamed nothing but this word,” said Olivier, alleging the code word had been discussed by the team before.

“While the impact between the two forwards took place, Ryand screamed, while the scrum fell apart,” he said.

Olivier said it was clear that upon the use of the “code word”, Roux had changed his position in the scrum, going against scrum rules. As a result, during impact, he came into contact with Hattingh, forcing Hattingh’s head downward before the scrum disintegrated. “Hattingh’s neck was broken during this process,” said Olivier.

Olivier said if the word “jack knife” had not been discussed between Roux’s team earlier, the players would not have known in which direction to wheel the scrum.

But in Roux’s heads of argument, Rob Stelzner, SC said Hattingh had not proved to the court that Roux was responsible for his injury. It was foreseeable that a player in Hattingh’s position could be subject to injury, he said.

“(Roux) was successful in showing that (Hattingh) contributed to the risk of injury,” said Stelzner.

Judgment was reserved. - Cape Times

aeysha.kassiem@inl.co.za