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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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