You are at the baseball park, the game has started and you’re awaiting your child’s turn at bat. You’re chatting with the dad sitting next to you and not really paying attention during a brief break in the action.
Play resumes and you realize this because the crowd begins to cheer. You stop talking with your neighbor and turn to watch the game. Just about the time you turn, an errant ball being thrown in smacks you in the face.
You are stunned, shocked and a bit scared. For a moment, you cannot fathom what has happened. You reach for your face, which is numb; when you pull away your hand, it is covered in blood.
The people surrounding you all turn to help; someone offers a towel, someone else a bottle of water. Everyone seems to be stunned; the game has stopped. Amazingly, you are not knocked unconscious.
You hear a siren; someone has called an ambulance. After several hours in the emergency room undergoing prodding and x-rays and stitching and bandaging you learn the total damage. Your left cheekbone is broken, your nose is broken, you have lost some teeth, your orbital bone is fractured and your left eye is swollen shut.
Your recovery time will take months. You have surgery to implant titanium plates in your cheek and behind your eye. You can’t work, and you’re unable to care for your children. Your husband must lose time at work to help run the household.
The big question – do you have a legal case?
A Pennsylvania couple had almost this exact thing happen to their family and they filed a lawsuit.
Here is what the judge ruled: “Foul balls, wild throws and the odd bounce are all part of the game.” And he threw out the case.
The couple appealed, but the case was thrown out again.