<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Baylee:
My 11 year old son was playing catch at a baseball field, in the grass area, while my younger son was having a game nearby, another boy, about 13 yrs. old picked up a bat and hit the ball after my son threw it, the ball went over a nearby fence and cracked a windshield of a car parked in the street next to the ball park. The owners of the car are trying to get us and the other parents to pay for a new windshield 50/50. The only problem is the other boy gave them false contact info. They are trying to find out his parents real name and number, but in the mean time I've put some thought into it, and I feel that we should split the bill 3 ways, because don't they have some responsibility for taking the chance of parking in front of a ball park while 2 baseball games are in progress? Or is the boy who actually picked up the bat and hit the ball responsible? Please respond asap, I'd like to handle this peacefully. Thank you.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
My response:
You are absolutely correct. There is no liability attributable to any of the boys. The driver knew, or should and could have known, that baseball was being played, and it is reasonable that someone would hit the ball into a parking area. This is called "secondary assumption of the risk." Being hit by a foul ball, or suffering property damage, is one of the inherent risks a baseball spectator assumes when sitting in, or parking their vehicle in, an unprotected area. [See Lowe v. California League of Professional Baseball (1997) 56 Cal.App.4th 112, 114, 123, 65 Cal.Rptr.2d 105, 106. The theory is that participatory sports often include accidental careless behavior; to impose liability for such conduct would likely "chill" participation in such sporting events and alter fundamentally the nature of the sport. [Knight v. Jewett, supra, 3 Cal.4th at 316-320, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d at 14-17; Cheong v. Antablin, supra, 16 Cal.4th at 1068, 68 Cal.Rptr.2d at 862; Ford v. Gouin, supra, 3 Cal.4th at 342-345, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d at 32-34; see BAJI No. 4.70]
Go ahead, SHOUT YOUR NAMES FROM THE HILLTOPS, because their's nothing the car owner can do.
IAAL
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