When I read the article, my first thought was media bias. Who would be dumb enough to argue that they didn't know a baseball flying through the air might hit someone? Curious about the actual arguments she made, I went looking for the ruling. You can read the ruling here. Excerpts: We agree that, as matter of law, the plaintiff may not recover on the only theory she advances -- negligent failure to warn of the danger of being hit by a foul ball.In its amicus brief, the office of the commissioner of baseball ... justifies this result with the cavalier observation that "the timorous may always choose to stay at home." She did get an expert to say that she had at most 1.07 seconds to react, not enough time to avoid the ball. But she didn't argue that her injury was unavoidable, only that people at ball games should be forewarned about foul balls. If she didn't have time to react, how would a sign have helped? So much for my "media making her look dumb" theory. I guess she did that on her own. This wouldn't be public record, but I wonder if the Red Sox tried to settle -- it would have been nice of them, and maybe a good PR move, to pay some of her medical bills. Or maybe they were just annoyed that she tried to sue and went to court. I love a good lawsuit.
Be Alert: Foul Balls and Bats Hurt.
When I read the article, my first thought was media bias. Who would be dumb enough to argue that they didn't know a baseball flying through the air might hit someone? Curious about the actual arguments she made, I went looking for the ruling. You can read the ruling here. Excerpts: We agree that, as matter of law, the plaintiff may not recover on the only theory she advances -- negligent failure to warn of the danger of being hit by a foul ball. In its amicus brief, the office of the commissioner of baseball ... justifies this result with the cavalier observation that "the timorous may always choose to stay at home." She did get an expert to say that she had at most 1.07 seconds to react, not enough time to avoid the ball. But she didn't argue that her injury was unavoidable, only that people at ball games should be forewarned about foul balls. If she didn't have time to react, how would a sign have helped? So much for my "media making her look dumb" theory. I guess she did that on her own. This wouldn't be public record, but I wonder if the Red Sox tried to settle -- it would have been nice of them, and maybe a good PR move, to pay some of her medical bills. Or maybe they were just annoyed that she tried to sue and went to court. I love a good lawsuit.