|
r-
<br />PROTECT
<br />CHILD R.
<br />PROTECT
<br />YOUR PROGRAM
<br />This articie is reprinted from Athletic Business, March 1936
<br />"From a safety standpoint, the more qualified your youth coaches are, the
<br />fewer injuries you're doing to have. From a liability standpoint, requiring
<br />I-ro erl trained indicates a good faith effort."
<br />your coaches to e p p Y
<br />no
<br />ate in the game, with the score
<br />tied and a runner on third, the
<br />youth league baseball coach
<br />flashes the sign for the suicide
<br />squeeze. On cue, the runner breaks
<br />from third with the pitch and the
<br />batter squares to bunt. He misses,
<br />but the runner, stirring memories
<br />of the infamous Ali -Star Game col-
<br />lision between Pete Rose and Ray
<br />Fosse, crashes into the catcher, jar-
<br />ring the ball loose and scoring the
<br />winning run.
<br />The triumphant base runner
<br />basks in the praise of his coach,
<br />who applauds the youngster's
<br />"hustle." The following week, in a
<br />similar game situation, the player
<br />again crashes into the opposing
<br />team's catcher, this time fracturing
<br />his spine. He is left paralyzed.
<br />A jury, agreeing with the plaintiff
<br />that the coach encouraged the play-
<br />er to injure himself, awarded 51 mil-
<br />lion, though a court later reduced
<br />the amount of the award.
<br />• '7t was just a gray overcast sky,
<br />then all of a sudden, lightning."
<br />That's what William Lakin of
<br />Orange Park, Fla., said after his
<br />13 -year-old son was left in a coma
<br />by a lightning bolt that struck the
<br />boy during a youth league baseball
<br />game.
<br />Lakin was one of three coaches
<br />present at the time, but he con-
<br />tends league officials should have
<br />cancelled the game when thunder-
<br />storms were forecast, and should
<br />have instructed coaches on proper
<br />safety procedures in such circum-
<br />stances. He is suing the Orange
<br />Park Little League Association.
<br />• In Runnemede, N.J., the mother
<br />of a 13 -year-old Little Leaguer sued
<br />four coaches for $750,000 after her
<br />son misjudged a fly ball during pre-
<br />game practice, suffering permanent
<br />eye damage when the ball struck
<br />him.
<br />The woman claimed the coaches
<br />failed to instruct her son or, how to
<br />shield the sun from his eyes before
<br />putting him in the outfield. The
<br />rasp was renortedly settled out of
<br />HOW MUCH RISK M ACCEPTA
<br />Injuries have always been an un-
<br />avoidable part of athletics, and
<br />courts traditionally have applied the
<br />"assumption of risk" standard to
<br />sports injuries, ruling that athletes
<br />implicitly accept the inherent risks
<br />involved when they choose to par-
<br />ticipate.
<br />One of the most common as-
<br />sumption -of -risk applications is the
<br />case of an attendee at a baseball
<br />game who is struck by a foul ball.
<br />In such cases, courts have nearly al-
<br />ways held that the patron knew or
<br />should have known about the risk
<br />of being hit by a ball, and assumed
<br />that risk when he or she chose to
<br />attend.
<br />In the past 10 years, however, a
<br />growing body of legal opinion has
<br />begun to erode the doctrine of as-
<br />sumed risk, establishing a prece-
<br />dent that not all risks are inherent.
<br />Courts have sometimes limited
<br />the amount of risk that a sports par-
<br />ticipant should be expected to as-
<br />sume, especially in the case of
<br />youth sports, ruling that no one as.
<br />sumes the risk of another's negli-
<br />gence.
<br />• In a 1976 case, Bourque vs. Du-
<br />plechin, a second baseman in a
<br />youth softball game suffered a bro.
<br />ken jaw when a base runner ran
<br />several feet outside the base path,
<br />knocking down the second base-
<br />man with a football -like block.
<br />The court ruled that the base run-
<br />ner acted negligently and that an
<br />amateur athlete does not assume
<br />the risk of another player's un-
<br />sportsmanlike act.
<br />tin contrast, Dale Hackbart of the
<br />NFL's Denver Broncos lost his suit
<br />against the Cincinnati Bengal$
<br />when a court ruled that profession-
<br />al athletes assume all risks of inju-
<br />ry, even those that result from an
<br />illegal hit or "cheap shot." Hackhart
<br />was injured when he was speared
<br />by a Bengal player.)
<br />• A 1975 case, Nabozny vs. Barnhill,
<br />involved a youth socf_e.r game in
<br />which a goalie fell on the ball in the
<br />the head by an opposing player,
<br />who was aiming for the ball.
<br />The court ruled that the prohibi-
<br />tion against contact in the specified
<br />area was a safety rule, which all
<br />players had a duty to observe. Will-
<br />ful, reckless or deliberate disregard
<br />of such rules, said the court, con-
<br />stitutes negligence.
<br />HOW RESPONSIBLE ARE COACHES?
<br />The Bourque and Nabozny cases
<br />apply to contact between par-
<br />ticipants, but other cases suggest
<br />that coaches and league administra-
<br />tors may be held accountable for er-
<br />rors of omission, as well as those of
<br />commission.
<br />Among the most celebrated
<br />sports liability suits is Thompson vs.
<br />the Seattle School District, a 1982"
<br />case in which a court found that
<br />high school football coaches had
<br />failed to instruct players in proper
<br />techniques and warn players of the
<br />dangers of improper tackling. The
<br />paralyzed player involved was
<br />awarded 56.5 million.
<br />With that decision, "failure to
<br />warn" and "failure to instruct" be-
<br />came enshrined in the legal lexicon,
<br />adding new dimensions to the defi-
<br />nition of negligence.
<br />"Contact between players is just
<br />one aspect of sports liability in
<br />which we're seeing an increase,"
<br />says Richard L. Robinson, a Ken-
<br />tucky attorney who has specialized
<br />in sports liability. "The number of
<br />cases involving supervision and in-
<br />struction is also rising."
<br />Not teaching young ball players
<br />how to slide into a pegged base is
<br />a common example of how failure
<br />to adequately instruct could lead to
<br />an ankle injury and a successful law
<br />suit, says Robinson.
<br />"The first question in such a case
<br />would be, 'Did the coach instruct
<br />the players how to slide into a
<br />pegged base?' and the secvnd
<br />question is, 'Did he let his athletes
<br />know they were playing on a field
<br />with pegged bases?'
<br />
|