Court: Suit can proceed against N.S. ice rink

Lawsuit against Rhode Island Sports Center alleges Zamboni fumes sickened players

NORTH SMITHFIELD – The Supreme Court has reinstated a negligence lawsuit brought against the operators of the Rhode Island Sports Center Inc. by a former college hockey player who claimed he was poisoned by toxic fumes from a Zamboni machine at the ice rink.

A Superior Court judge had thrown out Ian DeLong’s suit against the Eddie Dowling Highway sports center in 2016, ruling there was insufficient evidence that fumes from a propane-fueled Zamboni had caused him to suffer, according to a hospital diagnosis, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide poisoning. The incident happened in 2011 when DeLong was playing hockey for Curry College in Milton, Mass., against a team from Johnson & Wales University.

On appeal, lawyers for DeLong and the ice rink argued the case before the high court at Lincoln High School – part of an educational program called “Riding the Circuit,” designed to give students a close-up look at how the judiciary works.

In a decision issued May 8, the Supreme Court concluded the trial justice erred in issuing the defendant’s motion for summary judgment – a procedure in which a judge may dismiss a case without a trial, provided there’s insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

“In our considered opinion, the issues of fact inherent in this case necessitated a trial; there was not only one possible conclusion,” the high court said. “Accordingly, the defendant’s alleged negligence was a question that should have been left for the jury, and it was error to dispose of the case by summary judgment.”

In the suit, DeLong said that on Feb. 17, 2011, he and other members of his team began suffering symptoms of acute respiratory illness hours after the game. Back in Milton later that evening, one of his teammates began coughing up blood and asked to be taken to the hospital. The following morning, DeLong, too, began coughing blood

and went to the emergency room.

Medical records indicated that DeLong was suffering from “acute hypoxic respiratory failure,” with a discharge diagnosis of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide exposure” – allegedly from a Zamboni machine.

The defendants had argued there was insufficient evidence linking the Zamboni to an air quality problem at the ice rink or DeLong’s alleged injury. They said DeLong

failed to present evidence of dangerous air quality in the rink and even if such a condition existed, they were not provided with the level of advance warning required under the law to make them civilly liable for damages.

DeLong counterargued that the rink wasn’t tested by the state Department of Health until the following day – and if there were a hazardous condition in the rink the night before it could have been cured simply by opening doors and windows.

Statements from DeLong’s head coach, Robert Davies, were also admitted

into evidence to rebut the ice rink’s defense.

“Coach Davies submitted that, based on a lifetime spent in ice rinks, he can immediately discern air quality when entering a rink,” the high court said. “He said that, upon walking into the defendants’ facility on Feb. 17, 2011, he could smell some kind of gas. In addition Coach Davies noted that the Zamboni broke down while it was resurfacing the ice during an intermission, causing a delay in the action. He further swore that this Zamboni produced a gaseous odor that progressively worsened over time and that it released a thick blue film that permeated the air.”

In an affidavit to the court, DeLong’s lawyers also noted that Coach Davies swore that he had asked a rink attendant to open the doors during the game because of the smell of gas. And in the months

following the game, Davies said he had learned of similar incidents at the rink involving three other college hockey teams, including one with Salve Regina University that took place less than two weeks earlier.

“And lastly, as further evidence of the presence of a dangerous or defective condition, (DeLong) pointed to the defendant’s purchase of a new electric Zamboni just months later,” the high court said. A health expert had provided the trial justice with a sworn statement indicating that “electric Zambonis do not produce combustion emissions, as do those that are propane fueled.”

The high court vacated the judgment in favor of the defendants and remanded the case to the Superior Court for a decision.