So, who's responsible?

[GoGamecocks]

Lawyer here.

Let me preface by saying everyone here seems a little jaded. The tendency in personal injury law these days is usually to name as many different entities as you can, and worry later about the theory of liability. Some lawyers just want to find out who has the biggest insurance policy.

But when you drill down to the actual legal principles at work, the question OP meant to ask I think is "who is liable," not necessarily who gets sued.

So let me give you a two minute summary of the class every law student in America takes in their first year of law school: Torts. A "tort" is a civil wrong. A person is liable for that civil wrong if he has a duty of care and is negligent with respect to that duty. There are various components at work that will make the duty of care stronger or weaker. You, as a home owner have more of a duty of care vis-a-vis people you invite on your property as a opposed to people who are trespassing on your property.

So let's turn to the softball fields. Whoever owns and maintains the fields (and this could be separate people) owe a duty to players to maintain the field in good condition. If they control access to the park, they also have a duty to ensure that no one plays in weather conditions that might lead to injury. Umpires and coaches owe a duty to the players to make sure they don't play in dangerous conditions.

You could look around the softball field and see lots of potential duties. Helmet manufacturers owe a duty to their customers that the helmets won't fall apart when hit with a softball. Bleacher manufacturers owe duty to ensure that 500-pound Uncle Junior doesn't collapse the whole bleacher. It goes on and on.

So you have all of these people with "duties," but they're only liable for breaching their duty if they are negligent in doing so. The helmet manufacturer who doesn't stress test his design before putting the helmets in the market place is negligent. The owner/maintainer of the field is negligent if he doesn't pick up nails or broken glass in the outfield. These things are obvious.

But who is responsible for a "hole" in the right-hand batter's box? Is it the field owner? Is it the umpire? Is it the individual players who are digging it out every at bat? Is it the coaches for not insisting that the batters box be fixed? That's a tough call. Is anyone actually negligent?

And complicating matters even more (and this is why that torts class in law school takes an entire year) are factors like:

• Did the players assume the risk of injury by playing on a wet field
• Did the umpire owe a heightened duty of care to the players because they're minors
• Did the players' parents waive liability (either implicitly of explicitly) by letting their daughters play
• Was the actual harm reasonably foreseeable
• Was the negligence the proximate cause of the injury
• Did a player contribute to her own injury by doing something that was also negligent

It goes on and on, but the question you should ask is WHO owed a duty of care to WHOM and were they negligent? My opinion (which matters not one whit) is that an injury that arises from the scenario you present here is unfortunate, but no one has legal liability for the injury.

 

[marriard]

I was once told by an umpire years ago the 'Secret' phrase is, "I'm concerned for the safety of my players and wish to withdraw them from the field of play." I did that last weekend during a similar situation. Turned out that after I pulled them, it never stopped raining and the day was a washout.

Who decides on conditions (not who is liable - just decisions). In my experience it has been:

- At a tournament, if they are present it is the UIC or TD
- If they are not present, or I an going HS/College etc, then it is on the plate umpire.
- The lightning alarm

I have multiple times as an umpire and a coach stalled the game waiting for someone to come to their senses and call it.

Any tournament director will push to play because ultimately, tournaments are moneymakers/fundraisers and they don't want to refund money if they can possibly avoid it. Thus, they're going to try and pressure the umpires (to a limited degree) to play as long as they believe it is safe.

Up until everyone has played a game, this is probably correct. However, mid-tournament canceled events make way more money than tournaments that are run to completion. And games where even a single pitch has been thrown generally counts as part of the guaranteed games count even if the game never becomes official because you have to pay the umpires for that game.

TD push for game completion because they don't want to hear it from the coaches/parents/etc. You call for weather and it is hundreds of messages disagreeing with whatever decision made. Especially if you have to call a tourney and declare a winner. It is a massive headache.

The coaches are relying on the umpires' judgment as well. If they think their judgment is in error, they have the right to pull them from the field of play, much as I did last weekend.

I have never had to pull my team, but I have stalled for 3 minutes until the TD called it. If they hadn't I would have. I have also not taken the field because it was clear the field was unsafe no matter what the TD said. They already have the money.

Who will be sued? See the above answer.
Personally, as a coach, I feel that no game is worth the safety and health of my players and make no mistake about it, softball is still a game and nothing more.

Totally agree.

 

[quincy]

MLB it is my understanding that the powers that be decide if a game starts. Once it starts it is all in the umpires hands. They can do what they want.

I just assumed SB was the same way.

Remember game but not age, guessing DD was playing 14U? I know she was not 10. 10 under is IMO is my issue. She was old enough to make her old decisions too.

 

[Strike2]

There's an inherent risk of injury with most any athletic event. Softball is usually played on fields where conditions are less than optimal. There are trenches in the batter's box, holes in front of the pitching rubber, and all sorts of imperfections in the field of play. Games are also played at night, in very cold or hot weather, and sometimes in the rain. We all know this. When a field becomes "unsafe" because it's too wet is often a matter of opinion, and opinions vary widely. For the coach and especially the parent, your opinion matters the most. Yes, one can file a lawsuit if something bad happens, but one must hire an attorney, and they cost money. Either the attorney has to be REALLY convinced that a case is worth their time and take it on contingency, or you get to pay a big bill to find out if you've got a case. Talking about suing is one thing...lawyering up and making it happen may not be so easy.

 

[GoGamecocks]

Yes, one can file a lawsuit if something bad happens, but one must hire an attorney, and they cost money. Either the attorney has to be REALLY convinced that a case is worth their time and take it on contingency, or you get to pay a big bill to find out if you've got a case. Talking about suing is one thing...lawyering up and making it happen may not be so easy.

As an insurance defense attorney, I completely disagree with this. No one would have any difficulty at all finding a law firm who would take a case involving an injury to a female child on a contingency basis, even if the theory of liability was specious or altogether absent. It wouldn't cost you one red cent. Not only that, but you would likely have a number of law firms fighting over the case. A sympathetic victim and a defendant (or two or three) with deep pockets and/or good insurance - that's all the really matters.

This is the way the American judicial system work these days. I would guess that less than 1/10 of 1% of the personal injury cases involve plaintiffs paying their attorneys an hourly fee.

 

[quincy]

I did not know what you did for a living, I am going to unlike you now.

 

[Strike2]

As an insurance defense attorney, I completely disagree with this. No one would have any difficulty at all finding a law firm who would take a case involving an injury to a female child on a contingency basis, even if the theory of liability was specious or altogether absent. It wouldn't cost you one red cent. Not only that, but you would likely have a number of law firms fighting over the case. A sympathetic victim and a defendant (or two or three) with deep pockets and/or good insurance - that's all the really matters.

This is the way the American judicial system work these days. I would guess that less than 1/10 of 1% of the personal injury cases involve plaintiffs paying their attorneys an hourly fee.

You're in a position to know, and I'm sure lawsuits do happen. However, from my perspective, I've been involved with this game over 14 years in a place where a lot of softball gets played. I know the people who run the parks and the tournaments. I've sat on boards. I've not heard of anyone suing for an injury much less winning...ever. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it doesn't seem exactly common around here.

The complexities you outlined indicate these cases are anything but a slam-dunk for the average ambulance chaser. Have you ever been personally involved with a lawsuit involving an injury during a youth softball event? Can you share the facts and how the case was decided?

 

[625ender]

Even if the judgment is in the favor of the defendant you still lose. Our legal system is busted and expensive

 

[GoGamecocks]

You're in a position to know, and I'm sure lawsuits do happen. However, from my perspective, I've been involved with this game over 14 years in a place where a lot of softball gets played. I know the people who run the parks and the tournaments. I've sat on boards. I've not heard of anyone suing for an injury much less winning...ever. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it doesn't seem exactly common around here.

The complexities you outlined indicate these cases are anything but a slam-dunk for the average ambulance chaser. Have you ever been personally involved with a lawsuit involving an injury during a youth softball event? Can you share the facts and how the case was decided?

Nope. Never seen one, but it could happen.

My daughter was playing in a tournament in Dublin, GA three years ago. The bathrooms had malfunctioning locks in the stalls in the women's room. The lock mechanisms had been removed, and people tended to push the stall doors closed. The problem was where the lock plate met the door, it was just sharp steel. My wife actually complained about this to folks at the park. On the second day, a 12-13 year old girl damned near lost her finger when someone pushed inside the stall pushed the door closed on her finger. They called the ambulance and there was blood everywhere.

This was a classic case of the park having notice of a dangerous situation and not doing anything about it. Clear clase of negligence. Nothing related to the actual field of play, though.

 

[GoGamecocks]

Even if the judgment is in the favor of the defendant you still lose. Our legal system is busted and expensive

I completely disagree with this, too, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a better alternative.