Century-old legal principle protects stadiums from liability for certain kinds of accidents.
Earlier this summer, America’s favorite pastime turned dangerous when 44-year-old Tonya Carpenter was severely injured while watching the Red Sox play at Fenway Park.
Carpenter was enjoying the game with her boyfriend and her 8-year old son from excellent seats near the visitor’s dugout. When the Oakland Athletics came up to bat in the second inning, a player broke his bat on a swing, sending shards flying up into the stands. Several of these shards struck Carpenter in the face, causing a skull fracture and several broken bones in her face as well as severing two arteries in her brain.
After several days in serious condition at a local hospital, Carpenter is improving but still faces serious consequences from the injury. Her boyfriend reported that she is in constant pain and has lost her sense of smell as well as her hearing in one ear. Other consequences of her traumatic brain injury may not yet be apparent. Additionally, the trauma witnessing this incident surely caused for her young son cannot be underestimated.
Typically, one would expect this kind of accident to result in a very real possibility of recovering compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and emotional trauma via a personal injury claim.
However, because this injury took place at a stadium, the controversial “Baseball Rule” applies. This century-old legal principle states that if spectators at a baseball game knowingly choose to sit in an area where foul balls or shards of a broken bat could strike them, the stadium owner or operator is not responsible for any injuries that may result. In other words, simply by sitting down the spectator is accepting a duty to pay attention to their own safety and therefore is responsible for their own injuries.
Stadiums are required to take reasonable steps to protect spectators in areas where hazards like foul balls are likely, but they do not have to net off every inch of the stadium. Typically, stadiums have warning signs all over that advise spectators of the risks they are assuming. Ticket stubs also carry a warning. At Fenway the warning reads:
“The holder of this ticket voluntarily assumes all risks and danger of property loss and personal injury incidental to the game of baseball and related activities at Fenway Park, including specifically [but not exclusively] those relating to the structure and conditions of Fenway Park, and the danger of being injured by thrown or flying objects including bats and balls.”
Although the “Baseball Rule” is widely accepted, it is also a relic of a bygone time. The sport is much faster-paced now and fans are allowed to sit much closer to the field. The danger may be greater, and many experts are now beginning to cry foul at the continued use of the rule as a defense against premises liability in stadiums.
We will be watching developments in this case carefully to see if it results in a challenge to the “Baseball Rule.”
