As I continue to do work for law class this week, I have been looking a lot into cases of negligence within the context of sporting events (mainly amateur). In general, sporting events used to come with an underline of "you are playing under the assumption of risk" and that injuries suffered in the contest cannot be used in a court of law against you. However, reviewing a case from 1975 it's interesting to see how that landscape changed with one simple soccer injury.
In 1975, a case called Nabozny V. Barnhill surfaced. Nabozny filed suit against Barnhill for negligence in a high school soccer game in which Nabozny was kicked in the head. Barnhill was chasing down the soccer ball and the goalie, Nabozny, went down on one knee to scoop up the ball. Barnhill kept running forward and ended up kicking Nabozny in the head, causing severe injuries. Originally, Barnhill won the verdict, but it went to re-trial and Nabozny won in the higher court.
To me, this is the appropriate ruling. Participants in a leisure activity shouldn't be subject to this sort of reckless behavior. The verdict came down on Barnhill because of an act of negligence; the court ruled that Barnhill owed a duty to the other participants of the game to act in a way which respects the rules. We have seen other examples of athletes acting out of line with reckless behavior with no severe consequences. It is important for me to realize there can be legal recourse for such actions that I find disgusting in amateur sports especially.
It is important to me to think about in the field of intramurals how legal action can take place for costly play. It is important to stress playing within the rules in a sporting event; not doing this can not only damage the other participants but can do severe damage to you! Play within the rules or pay the consequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment