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6 Willamette Sports L.J. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/wlmsplj6 and id is 1 raw text is: Spectator Injuries: Examining Owner Negligence and the Assumption of Risk Defense Aaron Wakamatsu* INTRODUCTION People attend sporting events for various reasons. A person may attend for the love of the game, because friends or family persuaded the person to go, or to impress that special someone. However, injuries to spectators can affect anyone at or near the game. Spectators who lawfully purchase tickets to attend sporting events are business invitees and are be able to recover damages from stadium owners who knew or should have known that a condition existed which posed an unreasonable risk to the spectators, the spectators could not have discovered and protected themselves against this risk, and the owners failed to exercise reasonable care for the spectator's protection.' The purpose of this article is to: (1) analyze the current duty of care owed by stadium owners to spectators in baseball and hockey; (2) identify when any assumption of risk defenses might be available to owners; (3) examine recent spectator injuries in baseball and hockey; and (4) draw conclusions by applying the standards and defenses to recent events. BASEBALL At almost every baseball game, there is a chance for significant injury to a spectator. In fact, at Major League Baseball (MLB) games, more than 35 people have died from being hit by an errant ball or a broken bat at a ballpark.2 A Milsten study revealed that there are more than 35 spectator injuries from foul balls at MLB games for every one million spectator visits.3 Courts have concluded that stadium owners and teams do not owe a duty to protect their patrons from common, frequent, and expected risks. Getting hit by a foul ball is a common, frequent, and expected risk where the injured party is unlikely to recover. However, when the spectator is injured in a manner that is not a common, frequent, and expected risk of baseball, 6 the spectator will probably recover damages. For example, spectators have sued and won lawsuits after an iron gate struck the spectator's knee while watching the ball game, after a spectator tripped over a support beam and fell down a staircase at Wrigley Field,8 and after a Aaron Wakamatsu is a J.D. candidate at Willamette University College of Law (May 2010). 1 Walter T. Champion, Jr. Sports Law in a Nutshell 120-121 (3d ed. 2005). 2 Sports Spectators Experience the Action (and Injuries), Total Injury: Personal Injury Lawyers Nationwide, http://www.totalinjury.com/sports-spectator-Injuries.asp. 3 James E. Winslow, Adam 0. Goldstein, Spectator Risks at Sporting Events, The Internet Journal of Law, Healthcare and Ethics, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2007), available at http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=joumals/ijlhe/vol4n2/sport.xml (last visited Oct. 24, 2008). 'Jones v. Three Rivers Management Corp., 394 A.2d 546, 551 (1978). 5 Id. 6 d. 7 Murray v. Pittsburgh Athletic Co., 188 A. 190, 191 (Pa. 1936). Martin v. Angel City Baseball Ass'n, 40 P.2d 287, 287 (Cal.App.2d 1935).

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