Posted on 10/29/2009 6:32:09 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
HELENA, Mont. -- A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game.
The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game in Helena in 2003.
The Lewis and Clark County District Court jury awarded a total of $850,000 in damages against Louisville, Ky.,-based Hillerich & Bradsby for failure to place warnings on the product.
(Excerpt) Read more at wlky.com ...
This is just a Jury using someone else’s money to send a sympathy card.
I’m sorry for the parents but, that’s ridiculous.
MT is apparently in the running against CA to become the next Capitol of Ludicrous Lawsuits.
(And as long as baseball is played in November, they might as well don skates and play the game on ice.
Helena and Butte have been union country for better than a century. Bozeman and Missoula are People’s Republics centered on their Universities.
After they ruin their own state they move along to another and start the process all over again.
That is exactly what was happening here; what a great way to say it!
Thats plain ridiculous
Are wood bats even allowed in American Legion baseball?
Shouldn’t we just outlaw aluminum bats or mandate an additional 10 feet of distance between home and the pitcher’s mound. The helmet idea might work, should we mandate that everyone wears helmets at all times so when something bad happens to someone’s head they could sue someone. I think this is the American way.
Full body armor? Maybe the problem is the ball, perhaps soft rubber would not hurt as much. Or just outlaw baseball, it can be dangerous!
A lawyer once told me: “There’s nothing more scary than a jury of your peers.”
Why not mandate warnings on video cameras? After all, they can be used to record kiddie porn. Warnings on motor vehicles? Drivers get drunk and kill thousands of innocents per year. It’s much easier and “fair” to blame someone else for actions of those responsible.
I hope you will all enjoy watching Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols playing Wiffle Ball in a few years, because that is where we are now headed...
There has to be a mafia joke somewhere out there.
Make them all play Wiffle Ball instead!
Oh brother...I guess if someone dies in a car, they can sue the car company for not knowing the car was “hard” enough to kill you...This is really stupid and the parents are just out for money. They probably threw a party when he dropped dead and sang “were in the money...were in the money...”. These parents should not be able to sue the company any way as the kid was 18 years old and an adult.
20 posts and not one (1) Blaming lawyers or (2) Calling for tort reform. Mostly criticism of the jury that made the award. Conservatives are starting to get it!
Curt Drake, one of the family's attorneys, said the jury arrived at the total by awarding $792,000 to Brandon Patch for his lost earnings and pain and suffering, an amount that goes to his estate. The family was awarded $58,000 for their pain and suffering and damages.
Hopefully there will be an appeal.
You’ve got to be f’ing kidding me. The parents are disgusting for bringing this up. Using the same logic, perhaps the parents should be charged with child endangerment for letting their kid play baseball!
I’m sorry, but I’ve known since I was a kid that aluminum bats make the ball go faster. The parents are just upset and looking for somebody to punish. I hope they enjoy the money that they do not deserve.
I don’t know what the legal standards are in Montana, but it sounds like the jury ignored the judge’s instructions and followed their feelings instead of the law. My prediction is either a) the parents settle for about 1/4 of that award, or b) the court of appeals sets aside the verdict as contrary to law.
As I see it there should be no award. Let’s say a wooden bat propels a baseball at 100 mph, while an aluminum bat propels the baseball at 105 mph. The wood bat ball arives at the pitcher in .409 seconds (60/(100x5,280/60/60))and the aluminum bat ball arrives at .389 seconds (60/(105x5,280/60/60).
Will the 20 millisecond difference permit the pitcher to protect himself? Most studies show that simple reaction time in young adults is 215 milliseconds. So the answer is no. The jury did not base their verdict on the evidence.
Maybe they should make the ball much larger (higher mass - F=ma) and softer?
Lost earnings????-—If the “parents” were SO worried about their son’s future potential, they should have taken out an insurance policy on him. Basically, they just got paid for all the costs of having him.
Sorry for his death, but this just stinks.
I wish I could sue the govt. for my parent’s dying early as my dad didn’t get all the principal he put in for social security!
Sounds like this guy would’ve ended up getting beaned by the ball even if it would’ve came off a wooden bat!
It only takes a millisecond of losing concentration to get nailed, which CAN happen especially on the mound!
This was a FRICKIN’ money-grab, with a compliant DUmb-A$$ jury!
We are not sure the parents got the value of his lost future wages. That amount would go to his estate. Assuming there was no will, it would be distributed based upon the intestacy statute. If he had a wife or a kid, they would get the money. No wife or kids the parents would get it.
And yes, it does stink.
yes, that's sarc
How does a warning on the bat protect the pitcher? The pitcher isn’t going to walk to the plate and check the bat for each batter. And the pitcher can’t move back if he finds a bat with a warning.
I think they should have sued the little league rules-makers, since it is the rules that allowed the bat, and the rules that made the pitcher stand where he was.
:-)
Would Louisville Slugger’s warning have permitted the young pitcher to have reacted more quickly?
Bingo.
Did you not read the kid was 18yrs old and not in little league he was in american leagion baseball if it was little league yes go for it. But the kid was 18YRS OLD he knew that being on that mound brings possibly struck by a ball regardless of it being wooden or aluminum. the speed of the ball is an 8 mph diffrence and still the reaction time would have been the same on a line drive.
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