Quote:
Originally Posted by Saul Good
You'll forgive me if I doubt that a guy clad in a giant lion costume replete with bulging cotton biceps was able to fire a hot dog...behind his back, no less...at such an unreasonably high velocity that a prudent person was unable to defend himself from being struck in the face.
Is there no such thing as "shit happens"? Seriously...does everything have to be somebody's fault?
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When you invite people onto your property for a commercial purpose...kinda.
There's a pretty damn high standard of care in those instances. And there are some facts here that are simply indisputable:
1) The Royals brought Coomer onto their property to make money; there was no benevolent motive here. He was there for a strictly commercial purpose.
2) While there, he was struck in the eye by a projectile from a Royals employee.
3) Said projectile hit him with enough force to detach his retina. The ol' eggshell plaintiff rule applies here; I don't care if this guy had the weakest retinas in the world, the fact is that it was being struck with the projectile that detached it.
If I'm the Royals, I have absolutely no interest in making precedent here. This guy's injuries are real - it's a sympathetic plaintiff. There's an ages old axiom that says 'bad facts make bad law' - these are bad facts for the Royals. The guy really did have multiple surgeries because of the injury. The mascot really did throw something behind his back. Even if you think the letter of the law says there's no liability (though I would disagree), the letter of the law often does 'change' based on the facts as they are presented.
The Royals would be wise to work with this guy's medical providers, work with his attorneys and come up with a mutual walkaway where everyone gets paid a little. If the guy's out of pocket expenses are really as low as the article says, his insurance no doubt paid a percentage of it (technically inadmissible due to the collateral source rule) so the hospitals will likely be easier to work with.
Going to showdown on this would be very, very stupid, IMO.