Tuesday, July 8, 2014

SLUGGERRR SHOULD STICK TO HITTING:  The Missouri Supreme Court has held that fans at sporting events do assume the risk of thrown or batted balls and bats which may leave the field of play and enter the seating area, but you don't sign up for the risk that a baseball mascot beat you in the eye with a hotdog. Matter is remanded for retrial because of errant jury instructions below. Here's a sample of the ruling:
In the past, this Court has held that spectators cannot sue a baseball team for injuries caused when a ball or bat enters the stands. Such risks are an unavoidable – even desirable – part of the joy that comes with being close enough to the Great American Pastime to smell the new-mown grass, to hear the crack of 42 inches of solid ash meeting a 95-mph fastball, or to watch a diving third baseman turn a heart-rending triple into a soul-soaring double-play. The risk of being injured by Sluggerrr’s hotdog toss, on the other hand, is not an unavoidable part of watching the Royals play baseball. That risk is no more inherent in watching a game of baseball than it is inherent in watching a rock concert, a monster truck rally, or any other assemblage where free food or T-shirts are tossed into the crowd to increase excitement and boost attendance. ...
The rationale for barring recovery for injuries from risks that are inherent in watching a particular sport under implied primary assumption of the risk is that the defendant team owner cannot remove such risks without materially altering either the sport that the spectators come to see or the spectator’s enjoyment of it. No such argument applies to Sluggerrr’s hotdog toss. Millions of fans have watched the Royals (and its forebears in professional baseball) play the National Pastime for the better part of a century before Sluggerrr began tossing hotdogs, and millions more people watch professional baseball every year in stadiums all across this country without the benefit of such antics.

Some fans may find Sluggerrr’s hotdog toss fun to watch between innings, and some fans may even have come to expect it, but this does not make the risk of injury from Sluggerrr’s hotdog toss an “inherent risk” of watching a Royals game.

2 comments:

  1. Joseph Finn12:02 PM

    I'm just skimming the decision, but the repeated use of "Sluggerrr" is making me giggle far too much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. bellawilfer1:09 PM

    This is great.

    ReplyDelete