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Defective Safety Netting Injury to Fan

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Poptort

Junior Member
My wife and I have been going to the same college football stadium for many years and we have season tickets behind the goalposts. For the past couple years we have noticed that about 50% of the field goals kicked go through the protective netting and into the stands causing many fans to lunge for the ball hoping to get it. This has caused a number of fans to get injured as drunk fans dive for the ball and hit other fans. Recently this happened to my wife when a ball passed through the protective netting causing a mad dash for the ball which resulted in a drunk fan severely injuring my wife's shoulder.

I'm wondering if we have a case against the school and specifically what you might argue if you were us

Are there any cases where a team was held liable for the actions of a drunk fan? I'm hoping to find a case that establishes precedent

Thanks in advance!
 


Poptort

Junior Member
We do think that the drunk fan is liable but we also think that the team should be held liable as well because the safety net behind the goalpost is clearly defective and had the ball not gone through it then the fan wouldn't have lunged for it this injuring my wife
 

quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state?

Injuries of the type you describe are the result not of negligence on the part of the college but rather the fault rests on the drunks who lunge for the ball. Balls being kicked or hit into the crowd in a football game or a baseball game is not unexpected. It is an assumed risk game-goers take when attending a game.

Where a venue can be held liable is when there is an actual design defect in the stadium that has resulted in a past injury and this design defect is not remedied to prevent future injuries.
 

xylene

Senior Member
The stadium could have potential liability for allowing:

vital safety equipment to deteriorate

overselling alcohol

permitting end zone rowdiness


You need a lawyer to review the fact and see if there is a case. A pattern of negligent incidents does not automatically mean that you assumed a certain level of risk.
It also could show that the stadium operator knew and did nothing.
 

quincy

Senior Member
The stadium could have potential liability for allowing:

vital safety equipment to deteriorate
overselling alcohol

permitting end zone rowdiness


You need a lawyer to review the fact and see if there is a case. A pattern of negligent incidents does not automatically mean that you assumed a certain level of risk.
It also could show that the stadium operator knew and did nothing.
I am interested in the state. Most colleges do not sell or allow alcohol in their stadiums. Fans might be drunk when they arrive at a stadium or they might get drunk after they leave the stadium but in most of the college stadiums I am familiar with there is no selling or drinking of alcohol in the stadium during the game (although I understand that, for some colleges, this might be changing or has changed recently).

The football goal post "safety" nets are not designed solely for the safety of fans, by the way, although they do prevent balls from being kicked into the stands which provides a safety benefit. They are mostly designed to keep the balls in play after a field goal. Footballs kicked from a distance are not likely to cause the type of injuries that baseballs have been known to cause.

And the injury here is not even from the football. It is from another fan.

It doesn't hurt to consult with an attorney - but the one responsible for your wife's injured shoulder is the drunken fan who fell on top of her.
 
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FlyingRon

Senior Member
The purpose of the net in football is NOT safety. It's to recover the ball. Unlike baseball and hockey where the balls/pucks are essentially disposable, football tends to stick with them during play. Even if it were for safety, it doesn't sound like there's negligence here. If you got hit in the head with the kicked football, that might be one thing. The fact that people scuffled over a loose ball isn't the fault of the net.
 

quincy

Senior Member
The state is Florida if that helps at all
Thank you for providing your state name, Poptort. I do not see that the legal answer changes much, though.

There are two off-campus stadiums in Florida that have been selling alcohol to the general public during college football games (Miami, South Florida). I am not sure if other colleges in Florida do or not. Because most of the 36 schools (or so) that sell alcohol now at college football games have drink limits of some sort, the number of fans who get drunk at a game is supposed to be limited, as well. That does not prevent fans from drinking prior to the games, however, and so there will always be drunk fans.

I do not see that a college can be held liable for getting fans drunk, in other words. The fans pretty much get drunk on their own and are responsible for their own actions.

You can always review with an attorney the facts of your wife's injury but I think you would need to pursue the drunk fan if you are looking to be reimbursed for any medical expenses. If the injury did not require medical treatment of any sort, however, there will not be damages to support the costs of a suit.

I hope at least that "your" team won the game, and that your wife has recovered from her shoulder injury.



edit to add: Following is a link to an article written by David LaVetter and Yun Seok Choi for the Journal of Sport Administration & Supervision, 2010. The article, "Implications of Toppling Goal Posts in College Football: Managing Institutional Risk," obviously concentrates on the toppling of goal posts at football games but the article discusses the obligations colleges have to the fans attending the football games. The article cites three cases of fan injuries that resulted in lawsuits against the institutions - and how the courts determined liability. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jsas/6776111.0002.107/--implications-of-toppling-goal-posts-in-college-football?rgn=main;view=fulltext
 
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