Who Is Liable for My Injury at a Sporting Event?
Attending a sporting event can be a fun and invigorating way to support your favorite team and spend time with family. Every year, however, hundreds of fans leave stadiums with accident-related injuries. Some never recover. If you recently suffered an injury while at a sporting event, you have options. Someone else may be liable for your damages and you could be eligible for financial compensation. If you have any questions regarding your injuries and if you have grounds for a lawsuit contact your local San Diego injury attorneys.
Stadium Owner Responsibilities
According to California premises liability laws, the entities that own Petco Park, Torero Stadium, and other San Diego stadiums and arenas are legally responsible for keeping their premises reasonably safe for visitors. “Reasonably safe” means free and clear of property defects, hazards, and risks to health and safety, as is sensible according to the circumstances. While a stadium owner cannot control acts of God, he or she can take steps to ensure fan and visitor safety as much as humanly possible. These acts include:
- Checking the grounds for defects and potential hazards: Stadium owners and controllers have a duty to conduct checks of event areas, inspecting the property for possible injury risks such as slip and fall dangers.
- Fixing problems before fans arrive: If the sporting event center does contain potential health or safety risks, it is the owner’s duty to make repairs before welcoming people to the property. The owner may need to install safety devices to prevent common sporting event injuries, such as nets to catch fly balls.
- Warning visitors of unrepaired safety hazards: Finally, an owner must post signs to warn visitors at sporting events of any defects that the owner could not or has not fixed. Failure to post visible warnings (e.g., wet floor signs) could cause an accident.
A stadium owner’s responsibilities will depend upon the status of the visitor. Property owners owe invitees (such as sports fans) the highest duties of care. Any breach in these duties, resulting in a sporting event accident and injury, could lead to owner liability. The owner of the property will be liable if the victim can prove that the owner owed a duty of care, breached this duty, and thus caused the injury in question.
Other Parties Potentially Liable
Common sporting event accidents include slip and falls, injuries from sports equipment, collapsing structures, food poisoning, parking lot accidents, acts of violence, and assault. Although the owner of the property will be responsible for preventing most of these accidents, the owner might not always be the party solely liable for visitor injuries. Sometimes a third party may share or be fully responsible for a fan’s injuries, such as:
- Another fan in the stadium
- A driver in a parking lot
- A negligent stadium staff member
- A product manufacturer
Some personal injury cases involve more than one at-fault party. The question of liability will come down to who was the most at fault for causing the injury. Try the “but for” method if you’re not sure who could be legally responsible for your recent accident: your injury would not have happened but for the actions or negligence of the defendant. Determining the defendant may take an investigation into the sporting event accident.
Protection From Liability
It is important to note that stadium owners protect themselves from liability for certain accidents and injuries. When you purchase a sporting event ticket, you agree to its terms and conditions (often in fine print on the back of the ticket or bottom of page). These terms generally include language that protects the stadium owner from liability. This does not necessarily mean the owner is safe from all lawsuits. Accidents that stem from property owner negligence could still give the victim grounds to file a claim. A lawyer can help you with the details of your specific case.