Old legal principle key in fan’s case
As Tonya Carpenter continues recovering from injuries suffered at Fenway Park — her family said Monday that her condition was upgraded to fair — a legal expert in venue safety said a century-old legal principle would make it difficult for her to hold the Boston Red Sox or Major League Baseball liable.
Steve Adelman, a Phoenix-based attorney who also is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, says a harsh legal principle loosely known as the “baseball rule” puts the assumption of risk on fans far more than any fine print on a ticket stub or warning sign in a grandstand.
“What it says is, because baseball is America’s national pastime, we are all presumed to have certain knowledge about the likelihood that objects can fly off the field into the stands,” Adelman says.
“The law imposes a duty on fans to take reasonable precautions for their own safety. The legal effect of that is what’s called ‘assumption of risk.’ Under assumption of risk doctrine, which is an old doctrine, if somebody is even 1% at fault for their own injuries, they are not entitled to any legal recovery whatsoever as a matter of law.
“That’s the baseball rule in a nutshell. So if you’re sitting close enough to the field where you might get hit by a bat or a ball, you have a 100% duty to watch out for objects and make sure you’re paying attention. And if you choose not to pay attention, you can either sit behind the screen or sit far enough away so that an object wouldn’t reach you.”
Carpenter was injured Friday in the top of the second inning of the game between the Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics when the end of A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie’s bat broke off, flying into the stands and hitting Carpenter in the head, leaving her with injuries that were termed life-threatening.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says the sport must react strongly to an incident like this but termed his stance more a re-evaluation. He said any changes would result from talks among the league, individual teams and the players association.
“From Major League Baseball’s perspective, when you have an issue like this, an incident like this, you have to go back and reevaluate where you are on all of your safety issues, and trust me, we will do that,” Manfred said Monday before baseball’s draft.
“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that we have taken important steps in this area. Bat safety is much improved from where it was a few years ago. We spent a lot of time, effort and money to make sure that our bats are safer and that we have less of these incidents.”