Another Sports Lawsuit: Team had No Duty to Warn Spectator
A New Jersey Court has ruled in favor of a minor league baseball team in a lawsuit brought by a fan who was injured while participating in a three-legged race.
Daniel Duncan, who weighed about 340 pounds at the time of the injury, was at a Somerset Patriots game with his wife and son on August 5, 2006. He registered for one of the between-innings promotions and his name was called. At the registration area, team employees answered fan questions about the events, but Duncan chose not to ask anyone about the three-legged race, which the team called the “Monmouth Park Horse Race.”
Duncan thought he was participating in a race in which the fans carried flags around the field in a pretend “race.” That’s how the race used to be run. Instead, he was actually signed up for a three-legged race, which was the format since the start of the 2006 season.
When Duncan and the others got down to field level, a team staffer explained the race details and asked if there were any questions. Again, Duncan, apparently now aware that the race was not what he thought, did not ask questions and did not back out of participation. Obviously, he was not coerced into participating.
To make a long story short, Duncan slipped and hurt his foot after being paired with someone who was about half his weight. The grass was dry, although everyone acknowledged that the groundskeeper sprayed the field before the game. No one else fell.
The court’s analysis turned on the issue of the duty owed by the team to the fan, who was an “invitee” meaning he was invited onto the premises. In lay terms, it is similar to the duty you owe to someone who you invite into your house – you have to generally make sure that the house is safe from any foreseeable injuries. The court found that the team could not be liable because the plaintiff could not claim ignorance as to the risks:
Any risks inherent in a three-legged race were not something known to the proprietor but unknown to the participant. … Further, walking or running on grass is a common experience, and the risk of doing so with any particular kind of footwear is known equally by the participant and the property owner.
It sounds to me like the team did everything right. Had Duncan been chosen at random and if the race’s details were not explained, or if the ground had been soaked, the decision may have gone the other way.
