What happens when someone is injured when they are playing a sport because of someone else’s actions, or is hurt at a sporting event? Well, there are many ways to look at this. Was the sporting event a dangerous one for spectators? If the person who was injured was participating in the sport, were they injured maliciously, or did someone else’s incredible negligence cause their injury? Was there physical violence involved?
A recent Indiana case dealt with one sport that caused an injury to a participant. This sport was horseracing, and the injury occurred when a rider was thrown from their horse after another rider lost control of their horse, and it ran into the first rider’s horse. But what did the court do, and how did they determine the outcome?
The Case: Cruz v. New Centaur, LLC, et al
This case involves horseracing, and a rider falling off of their horse. The plaintiff in this case was a horse jockey, and often raced and ran horses at Indiana Downs horse racing track in Shelbyville, Indiana. On May 7th, 2018, the plaintiff was running one of his horses on the track, while another jockey, Marcelle Martins, was running one of his horses.
After turning a corner, Martins lost control of his horse, and called for one of the helpers on the track to gain control of his horse. However, neither Martins nor the helper could gain control of the horse’s reins, and the horse ran into the plaintiff’s horse, causing the plaintiff to be thrown from the horse and injured.
The plaintiff then sued Indiana Downs and the owners of Indiana Downs. The plaintiff claimed that there were negligent hiring practices going on, and that because of these practices the employees were not properly trained to help alleviate problems like the one that caused plaintiff’s injury.
The court of appeals discussed the fact that this was technically a sports injury, but determined that the sports injury argument was not being made. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of Indiana Downs. However, one argument to look at was the one made by the defendants at summary judgment. That the plaintiff should not be able to recover because this activity was inherently dangerous.
The trial court stated that there were genuine issues of material fact to deal with here, and that the plaintiff needed to show that the defendant’s intentional conduct had caused the plaintiff’s injury, or that the defendants had engaged in reckless conduct that had led to the plaintiff’s injury. These are some of the elements of sports injury law. In order to prove that you are entitled to damages for an injury that occurred while participating in sporting events, you must show one of the above two elements!
Have You Been Injured Because of Someone Else’s Negligence?
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