Sports injury at High School

[Lorrie]

My son injured his arm during a high school baseball game. Going into this spring season he was projected as a first round draft pick in the upcoming June minor league draft. He was 11th in the country out of all high school players. A first round pick could have earned him 1-2 million in a signing bonus. He can never get that status back.
His high school coach (I have a hard time calling him that) had only one year of coaching under his belt and had no clue himself or anyone helping him who had any knowledge of how to train and develope high school level pitchers. The game in which the injury occurred he was throwing in the bull pen to warm up and no coach was watching him or keeping count of his warm up throws and consequently he threw too many pitches and then 20 pitches into the game he torn the UCL (ligament) in his elbow requiring surgery and up to 12 months of rehab. Many parents were unhappy with the coaches lack of knowledge and ability to coach high school players. We went to the School principal as far back as last May (99) and she did nothing. The school insurance only pays for 6 therapy visits and our personal insurance only 20 visits, the others will have to come out of pocket. I feel the school should be held partially responsible for this injury and should help pay for the rehab to get my son back to where he should be and also pay for his pain and suffering. The mental upset was as bad or worse than the physical pain he has been through. He lost his SR year of playtime and his status in the draft. Do I have a case?

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lorrie:
My son injured his arm during a high school baseball game. Going into this spring season he was projected as a first round draft pick in the upcoming June minor league draft. He was 11th in the country out of all high school players. A first round pick could have earned him 1-2 million in a signing bonus. He can never get that status back.
His high school coach (I have a hard time calling him that) had only one year of coaching under his belt and had no clue himself or anyone helping him who had any knowledge of how to train and develope high school level pitchers. The game in which the injury occurred he was throwing in the bull pen to warm up and no coach was watching him or keeping count of his warm up throws and consequently he threw too many pitches and then 20 pitches into the game he torn the UCL (ligament) in his elbow requiring surgery and up to 12 months of rehab. Many parents were unhappy with the coaches lack of knowledge and ability to coach high school players. We went to the School principal as far back as last May (99) and she did nothing. The school insurance only pays for 6 therapy visits and our personal insurance only 20 visits, the others will have to come out of pocket. I feel the school should be held partially responsible for this injury and should help pay for the rehab to get my son back to where he should be and also pay for his pain and suffering. The mental upset was as bad or worse than the physical pain he has been through. He lost his SR year of playtime and his status in the draft. Do I have a case?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My response:

Unfortunately, your son's school insurance company is correct. There is no legal liability for them to pay because practice pitching and throwing is part and parcel of the game of baseball, and it's a necessary part of the ongoing efforts of training, no matter how bad the "training" might be. The seminol case on the subject of "Sport Injuries" is, Knight v. Jewett (1992) 3 Cal.4th 296, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 2. The school, as defendant, would argue that the rule of "Knight," that a participant in an active sport (touch football in that instance)breaches a legal duty of care to other participants only if he intentionally injures another player, and that the primary assumption of risk doctrine controls, applies here. The court in "Knight" conducted a policy analysis of the defendant's duty of care to the plaintiff. Under "primary assumption of the risk," the implied assumption of the risk defense acts as a complete bar to the defendant's liability only when policy considerations dictate that the class of which the defendant is a member should owe no duty of care to the plaintiff. When the defendant does owe the plaintiff a duty of care, but the plaintiff knowingly encounters a risk of injury caused by the defendant's breach of the duty (termed "secondary assumption of risk"), the plaintiff's reasonable or unreasonable assumption of the risk merely becomes one factor incorporated into a comparative negligence analysis. Id., at 309-315.

The "Knight" court applied a "multifactor policy analysis." Consistent with its focus on duty, the court did not look to the plaintiff's subjective knowledge or appreciation of the risks involved in the activity. The supreme court noted that the nature and scope of the defendant's duty depended on its role in or relationship to the activity in question. Id., at 317. The court examined the policy implications of imposing a duty of care in an action for damages between co-participants in a touch football game. Looking at other cases involving a sports participant's liability for injuries carelessly inflicted on a co-participant, the court found that public policy considerations weighed against imposing a duty of care for negligently caused injuries, because of the "chilling effect" this might have on "vigorous participation in such sporting events." Id., at 318. The supreme court concluded that a participant in a sport only breaches a duty of care toward co-participants if he "intentionally injures another player or engages in conduct so reckless as to be totally outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport." Id., at 320.

Failing to count pitches is not "outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport, and you, as parents knew, or should and could have known, that injuries of the kind your son has suffered, were definately possible in this type of sport, and its training - - thus, assuming the risk.

The long and short of this matter is, if you were to bring a lawsuit against the school for your son's damages, the school would win.

I hope your son is doing alright.

IAAL.




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