Dallas Cowboys Practice Facility Sports Lawsuit Gets Messier
Remember when two employees of the Dallas Cowboys were severely injured last year when the team’s practice facility fell apart in a storm? It looks like the lawsuit over who will be held liable is starting to take a turn for the worse.
According to this article, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have alleged that the team knew about the facility’s potential danger of collapsing, but ignored the warnings.
Two summers before the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility collapsed, team officials were scrambling to deal with warnings that the massive tentlike structure was unsafe. Speed was of the essence, given concerns expressed by a building-collapse expert the team had hired and the fact that training camp was starting soon.
The article also makes it sound as though the Cowboys are portraying the plaintiffs as greedy in light of their settlement demand. Any way you view this story, the fact that assistant scout Rich Behm is permanently paralyzed and assistant coach Joe DeCamillis remains injured is a tragedy.
As a sports lawyer, it is also interesting to note that the Cowboys are seeking indemnification from the parties which built the facility. The article is unclear if a separate lawsuit was filed, but if would probably make the plaintiffs' lawyer's job easier if they no longer had to point to an empty chair as a possible responsible party.
