MOMS HIT POP
Lawsuit vs. youth football heads for trial as ...
Two California mothers looking to hold Pop Warner liable for brain injuries that led to tragic deaths of their sons can take their lawsuit against the youth football league to trial, a federal court judge has ruled.
The Los Angeles judge, agreeing with the moms that Pop Warner “misrepresented that safety was its top priority,” rejected a motion by the company to toss the suit.
“My son deserves to be heard, even if only from his grave,” one of the moms, Kimberly Archie, told The Post, saying she wants a jury trial.
Growing evidence that playing football can result in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that can cause mood swings and depression, is responsible for a declining number of kids playing organized football — from Pop Warner through high school.
The evidence also moved the NFL in 2015 to settle legal claims with up to 20,000 former players before discovery in that case began.
In the California case against Pop Warner — the biggest youth football league in the US, with roughly 200,000 participants — Archie’s son, Paul Bright, died at the age of 24 in a motorcycle accident in 2014 after playing youth football for eight years.
An autopsy on Bright discovered he suffered from CTE. Bright’s erratic and dangerous behavior on his motorcycle was caused by CTE, Archie claims in court papers.
The second mom, Jo Cornell, claims her son, Tyler, also diagnosed with CTE after he died in 2014, played in Pop Warner from 1997 through 2002.
Tyler committed suicide at the age of 25.
“The court concludes it is plausible that as alleged, plaintiffs’ repeated head injuries sustained playing youth tackle football resulted in brain injury and CTE, and are thus traceable to acts of omission by Pop Warner,” Judge Philip Gutierrez wrote in his 25-page decision turning aside an effort by Pop Warner to toss the suit.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, seeks unspecified damages. Last year, Pop Warner settled the first CTE-related lawsuit against it for less than $2 million.
A loss in the current California case could hit Pop Warner in the wallet. In 2014, the league had $3.9 million in revenue and $2.1 million in total assets. The league’s insurance carrier covers each player, in certain cases, up to $2 million, a source close to the settlement said.
Pop Warner, in legal papers seeking to dismiss the case, argued that there is an “inherent risk to the sport.”
“Players at all levels and their parents are aware that head contact is a common risk in contact sport, thus their decision to participate and continue playing constitutes an assumption of the risk,” it said.
A Pop Warner lawyer did not return calls by press time.