Thursday, June 10, 2004
...and personal responsibility. This is a sad story. I sure wouldn't want to be clocked in the puss by a baseball traveling at 90 MPH, but, y'know, you buys your ticket and you takes your chances. The story: Woman sits down to watch ballgame at Fenway Park, Darren Lewis fouls off a pitch (probably the hardest-hit ball he's ever clubbed) which strikes said woman in the face, woman sues Boston Red Sox for $486,909. Judge blocks suit from going to trial and the appeals court agrees. Case closed.
Again, you can feel badly for the person in question, very badly, but the fact is, you go to a ball game, you're taking a risk. Personally, I think it would have been nice of the Red Sox to quietly help the woman out with some of her expenses - I doubt serious injuries like this happen very often, but they didn't (as far as we know), and at the same time, it's good to see the courts coluntarily limiting their own power.
Court sides with Red Sox in foul-ball injury lawsuit
But to Jane Costa of Stoughton, sitting some 20 rows behind the dugout at Fenway Park, it was a rocket that slammed into her face. The blur of a baseball fractured bones, bloodied her nose and mouth, and made her black out for what she later said seemed like an eternity.
Anyone who has watched a baseball game knows a foul ball can cause serious injury. But in a personal-injury lawsuit against the Red Sox, Costa said she hadn't been to Fenway since she was 8 and didn't even know what a foul ball was. She said the club should have issued more explicit warnings, beyond the fine print on the back of her ticket.
Yesterday, in the first ruling in 54 years by a Massachusetts appellate court involving a spectator hit by a baseball, a state Appeals Court panel sided with the Red Sox and said a judge was right to block the suit from going to trial.
The three-member panel said that even someone with scant knowledge of baseball should realize that "a central feature of the game is that batters will forcefully hit balls that may go astray from their intended direction."
"It is not disputed that, while passively watching the game, the plaintiff's life was forever changed by this tragic event," the panel said. Nonetheless, the Red Sox "had no duty to warn the plaintiff of the obvious danger of a foul ball being hit into the stands," the panel said.
Thomas J. Ostertag, senior vice president and general counsel in the commissioner's office agreed with the essence of the ruling.
"While we, of course, very much regret that the plaintiff was injured, the decision is consistent with opinions of courts in similar cases all over the country," he said.
After her injury, Costa, who is now 40, had to undergo reconstructive surgery that installed eight plates in her face, according to her lawyer James R. Burke. She has severe headaches and permanent nerve damage, and must take medication daily. Her lawsuit listed lost wages and medical expenses totaling $486,909...
geeeeeez jane dont know if you remember me we went to earley grade scool i pray your alright !
lived in the big white house in front of gibbons school lol i live in nh. if you ever read this give me a ring catch up!! joe buczek wentworth nh.