Severson & Werson Wins Appellate Victory for the American Amateur Baseball Congress

(Last updated October 5, 2005)

Severson & Werson’s Katherine Wadley wrote persuasive briefs causing the First District (California) Court of Appeal to overturn a Sonoma County judge’s verdict that awarded $262,502 plus cost-of-proof sanctions totaling $78,000 to a teenaged baseball player who was accidentally injured during a warmup drill prior to a tournament game.

Severson & Werson represented the coach, who was batting balls to the players as part of a practice drill when he drove a line drive that hit a player while aiming for the outfield as he had intended. The firm also represented the American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC).

The plaintiff contended, and the trial court found, that the coach had acted negligently and recklessly by conducting the drill too fast, and by batting a second ball while the first was still in play. Evidence produced indicated, however, that most coaches conduct these drills rapidly, often with more than one ball in play, in order to speed up the drill. The trial court found the AABC vicariously liable.

The Court of Appeal reversed in full, based on the doctrine of implied primary assumption of the risk.

Stating that the coach’s role in the warmup drill was subject to the co-participant standard of Knight v. Jewett, the court determined that the coach owed the ballplayer a duty not to engage in conduct “so reckless as to be totally outside the range of the ordinary activity involved in the sport.” While the trial court found the coach reckless under the traditional tort concept of the term, that was not the type of recklessness required for liability under Knight v. Jewett.

The appellate court found that the coach’s conduct in this case — batting a ball that unintentionally struck and injured a player during a warmup drill — was within the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport of baseball in general, and particularly in a pre-game warm-up drill. Even the coach’s failure to check to see that the player was out of the way before batting the ball was not totally outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport.

The court also found that imposing a duty of care on a coach batting balls in a pregame warmup drill might have a chilling effect on the game of baseball in general, particularly on the infield-outfield drill.

The Court of Appeal concluded the doctrine of primary assumption of the risk barred the player’s claims: “Coach-led drills are such a part of baseball, that we conclude the sport would be altered considerably should coaches avoid the drills out of fear of being sued by a player who is accidentally hit during the warm-up.”

Katherine A. Wadley (formerly Katherine A. Knopoff), appellate counsel at Severson & Werson, wrote the appellate briefs. Vogel v. American Amateur Baseball Congress, http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/A105405.PDF.