A teenager has been awarded more than $800,000 in damages after he fell from a bunk bed during a sleepover at a friend's house.
It is a decision which is likely to concern parents across the country whose children invite friends home to stay overnight.
Cameron Brock Thomas was 10-years-old when he suffered a fractured skull after the fall at his friend's family home at Bilambil Heights on the north coast of NSW in April 2004.
He suffered "immediate and significant" changes in his behaviour following the fall, could no longer stand noise, was impulsive and unpredictable and later became depressed and suicidal, according the evidence at a Supreme Court hearing earlier this year.
Cameron sued William and Susan Shaw, the parents of his friend Joel, claiming the accident occurred after the Shaw family failed to provide a safe environment for him, including the removal of the ladder and guardrail on the bunk bed.
The Shaw family argued that Cameron had been "skylarking" in an accident that had nothing to do with the bed.
Joel had told the court his friend had slid from the bunk to a nearby chest of drawers before shouting something like "Geronimo" as he jumped to the floor.
In his judgement Justice David Kirby accepted Cameron's account - that he had slid down the bed and tried to use the chest of drawers as a foothold - as "more plausible" than Joel's.
He found the Shaws were negligent in not assessing the risk of a fall from the bunk.
"I accept ... that it was foreseeable that young children of of Cameron's age would climb onto the top bunk and may improvise in getting down," he said. "The occupier ought to have known that there was the risk of harm, absent a ladder and guardrail."
"It was predictable to a reasonable person that a fall whilst descending from a bun bed was likely to cause serious harm."
Justice Kirby awarded Cameron $853, 396 in damages, including future economic loss and medical expenses, and ordered the Shaw's to pay costs.
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