Law Review - Headlines


Article Thumbnail Prior experience and plaintiff’s own video prove plaintiff assumed risk at terrain park
Jul 1, 2009
A 17-year-old skier can assume the risks of a terrain park under New York law. The case of Martin v State of New York et al., 2009 NY Slip Op 3822; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3704 is an excellent review of the law of assumption of the risk in New York.
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Article Thumbnail Whitewater rafting in Maryland, plaintiff tries various ways to sue
May 4, 2009
The plaintiff in this case had gone whitewater rafting previously with the defendant. During his second trip he fell out of the raft, injuring his knee. He later developed a staph infection from the injury. He sued the defendant for failing to warn and failing to properly provide first aid for his injuries. Cases where the plaintiff argues the first aid care was improper or negligent are extremely rare. This is the only one that the SNEWS® Law Review editors have found to date. However the court rules on a technicality that throws out the plaintiff’s first aid claim and does not provide us with any direction in this area of the law.
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Article Thumbnail California Supreme Court upholds Appellate Court – Good Samaritan only provides immunity for first aid
Apr 27, 2009
In a story posted on March 13, 2007, we reported a concerning California Appellate Court decision in California court ruling appears to limit protections of California Good Samaritan Act. The California Supreme Court has followed the ruling of the lower court stating that California’s Good Samaritan Law which provides immunity for civil litigation when assisting injured people only provides that immunity during an emergency and only to the extent the help provided is first aid.
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Article Thumbnail Case illustrates how ropes course procedures can work to eliminate lawsuits
Apr 13, 2009
In this challenge course or ropes course case the plaintiff was a volunteer facilitator on the course. He clipped into the wrong anchor point which could not hold him and he fell 35 feet. The ropes course is located in Virginia and owned by the defendant Young Life which is incorporated in Texas with its place of business in Colorado. The Plaintiff Kuykendall is a citizen of Florida. The case was brought in the Federal Court in the Western District of Virginia where the accident occurred and where the law of the location of the accident would be applied to the facts of the case.
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Article Thumbnail Iowa uses a badly written release to miss opportunity for reviewing minor’s right to sue
Apr 8, 2009
The Iowa Supreme Court in Sweeney vs. City of Bettendorf and Bettendorf Parks and Recreation was given the opportunity to review a minor’s right to sue. However the facts in the case would lead most courts to decided easily for the plaintiff and the issue of whether a parent could sign away a minor’s right to sue was not reviewed.
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Article Thumbnail Florida follows majority in not allowing a parent to sign a release for a minor
Mar 23, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court took on the issue of whether a parent can sign away a minor’s right to sue and said no. The decision weaves around previous Florida decisions we reported in Pending Florida Case Leaves Questions about Release Validity, (Gonzalez v. City of Coral Gables 871 So.2d 1067, 29 Fla. L. Weekly D1147) and Case Brief: Florida Court Establishes Arbitration Precedent in Travel Company Case -- see also (Global Travel Marketing, Inc v. Shea, 2005 Fla. LEXIS 1454).
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Article Thumbnail Pennsylvania release missing key language ends up securing plaintiff a place in a jury trial
Mar 2, 2009
This is an illustrative case where a release which was written to appear fair to those signing it instead gave the plaintiff the knowledge and the legal right to beat the release and have the case go to trial. The release stated it protected the defendant from all claims but did not specifically mention gross negligence, so the injured plaintiff sued for gross negligence.
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Article Thumbnail Case over tubing accident instructive into Pennsylvania release law
Feb 16, 2009
The decision in Wang v. Whitetail Mountain Resort is very easy to read, easy to understand, and sets forth simple rules for writing a release under Pennsylvania law. Pennsylvania law, as we have written about in the past, is not very conclusive on the validity of releases or how they are to be written. In this case, the appellate Pennsylvania court made the understanding that much easier.
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Article Thumbnail Case Brief: Case of a school district suing an insurance agency for coverage as 'additionally insured'
Feb 9, 2009
Many times you are asked to provide a certificate of insurance to someone you are doing business with. This lists the other business as an additional insured on your insurance policy. As previous SNEWS® Law Review articles have explained before, that means your insurance policy is covering the third party if a claim is made against the third party or both of you. In this particular case, coverage was offered under an additional insured endorsement on an insurance policy.
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Article Thumbnail Case Brief: Illinois equine injury with down-to-earth analysis by the court
Feb 2, 2009
In this Illinois case the federal district court upheld the lower courts motion for summary judgment based on the release the plaintiff signed. The plaintiff argued the release was not broad enough to cover the injury, was void because of an Illinois statute and the release violated public policy. However the court did not find any of the plaintiff’s arguments persuasive and granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
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Article Thumbnail Case Brief: Case against summer camp offers great insight into Massachusetts release law
Jan 30, 2009
This is a great case to study Massachusetts law concerning releases, indemnification agreements, camps, camp rules (standards) and how the court examines the facts to make its decision. The only problem is the court ruled against the defendants on each motion, and in most cases, correctly.
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Article Thumbnail Case Brief: Kayak rental shop and dam owner owe no duty to kayak renter
Jan 19, 2009
This case is a discussion of the obligations to the deceased of a kayak rental shop and land owner who controlled a dam. The plaintiffs are the heirs of the deceased. The deceased had rented a kayak from Janice Cody, d/b/a Winding River Canoe Rentals. He was kayaking on the Clinton River of Michigan when he went over the Yates Dam and drowned.
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Article Thumbnail Wyoming Inherent Risk includes accidents boarding gondola
Dec 15, 2008
The Wyoming Supreme Court interpreted the Wyoming Recreational Safety Act to determine that boarding the gondola (now gone) at Jackson Hole Resort was an inherent risk of skiing. The plaintiff, while wearing ski boots, got her foot stuck under the exterior ski rack and was injured the gondola started and dragged her several feet. The court’s interpretation of the Wyoming Recreational Safety Act has not always been in favor of the defendant. This case was originally filed in the Federal District Court, tried and appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Article Thumbnail Ski resort found partially liable for skier injuries from a jump
Dec 8, 2008
The plaintiff in this case was an experienced skier who had gone over the table top jump, the one that led to his injuries, before. There is conflicting testimony on how fast the plaintiff was skiing, however he landed far down the hill beyond the landing zone – some reports indicated the skier was travelling so fast he landed over 100 feet beyond the landing zone. The injuries rendered him a quadriplegic. The case was taken to trial and the jury found the plaintiff 55 percent liable and the ski area 45 percent liable. The jury awarded $30 million in damages, resulting in a $14 million dollar recovery for the plaintiff.
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Article Thumbnail Cyclist’s action against landowner barred by assumption of the risk and New York Recreational Use statute
Dec 1, 2008
The plaintiff in this case was riding a bike and followed two friends off a street onto a dirt track. The dirt track was on land owned by the defendant homeowners association. As the plaintiff was proceeding down the track he hit a hole and was injured and sued the association. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment and the decision was appealed. The New York Appellate Court overturned the trial court’s decision and granted the summary judgment based on the New York Recreational Use Statute argued by the defendant and assumption of the risk, a defense which the court raised on its own.
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Did you hear?...Health magazine announces fitness/gear award winners
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Review ThumbnailMakoto Xergame
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When the current owners of Makoto USA saw the game that would become Makoto at an arcade in 2002, they immediately realized its potential to provide both physical and mental fitness for anyone, from athletes to the elderly to folks in rehab. The SNEWS® team first saw a Makoto at the Health & Fitness Business show in Denver several years ago and, after playing it (over and over, we must admit), we had to get one for the office.
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WS 100 endurance run observations: Product, privacy and sloshing packs
"I was hanging out helping brain-dead runners summit the Devil’s Thumb climb in the Western States 100 last Saturday, June 27. It’s a nasty, rocky, 1,500 foot climb over 1.8 miles that comes for most in the hottest part of the day. And it was pretty hot, dry and dusty last weekend. As I escorted runner after runner from the top to the medical aid weigh-in, got their bottles and packs refilled, and"

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