A jury found the Los Angeles Dodgers partially responsible for a Giants fan’s savage beating in a stadium parking lot in 2011 and that partial liability will cost the team must nearly $14 million. The team was found 25 percent responsible for the extensive injuries to Bryan Stow, 45, which comes to precisely $13.9 million for their share when all of Stow’s medical bills and lost earnings are factored in.
Stow, a 45-year-old paramedic who went to the 2011 opening day game in Los Angeles, was beaten nearly to death in a parking lot after the game. He now requires 24-hour care from his family.
The case is a cautionary tale for all professional teams. We have discussed (and heralded) the actions of a few stadiums to crackdown on thugs and drunks but such actions still remain the exception to the rule. As many of us have lamented over the years, I rarely take my kids to stadiums, particularly football stadiums, because of all of the swearing and drunks in the stands. You have to sit there as people scream profanities and act like thugs in front of children. It is simply no fun for families. Even without kids, I find it hard to watch a game with people acting out adolescent, beer-soaked impulses. However, even with the loss of families, few stadiums do anything about it and are finding new ways to get more alcohol in the hands of fans.
In this case, the jury found that the team was partially responsible for the attack when it failed to eject the two attackers earlier from the game for bad behavior and then failed to properly monitor the parking area which had little security and little light. We previously discussed the cases of Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood — two prototypical sports thugs. Both Dodgers fans pleaded guilty to the attack and received eight and four years respectively for their crimes.
Normally, criminal or violent acts cut off proximate causation in tort cases as superseding intervening acts. However, there are exceptions when such violence is clearly foreseeable. Thus, in the case of Kline v. 1500 Massachusetts Avenue. In Kline a landlord was found liable for not taking precautions to protect tenants from crime in an apartment building in Washington. That case involved a tenant who remained on the property during years of decline of the neighborhood in Washington, D.C., but continued as an at-will tenant. She was aware of the crime in the area and the building. However, the court still held that the landlord was liable even though he met housing regulations. He still violated the implied warranty of habitability.
Perhaps with this judgment, team owners will begin to spend more on security and more actively expel unruly fans. It is not only the reasonable and decent thing to do but they just may find that more families (and fans of other teams) are willing to come to their stadiums. I recall that when my sister-in-law and one of her nieces went to the White Sox stadium to watch the game with the Cubs (the “subway series”) last year, fans proceeded to throw beer on them and scream profanities — simply because a woman and little girl were wearing Cubs hats. They were then ridiculed by other White Sox fans as they walked to their car. Such experiences guarantee that they will not return to the stadium but owners continue to leave fans at the mercy of such thugs. This ruling may add a financial reason to act where simple decency failed to motivate owners and teams.
Source: LA Times
raff, Baseball has this time between innings when there’s no baseball being played!!! I am a trained observer of people. I am a professional people watcher. What the hell do you do between innings? I wonder often about your observational and analytical skills. Thanks for the release. You defend the indefensible sometimes. To say baseball does not have a HUGE problem attracting black fans is ludicrous. MLB admits it, why won’t you? Again, how many MLB parks you been to?
Nick,
I released your comment from the spam eating machine.
Nick, how do you have time to watch the game if you are busy deciding which races are there and differentiating between Hispanic blacks and African blacks? Wow.
“The Cell” is in my bottom 3 ballparks. Shea Stadium is/was the worst.
Help please. I had a comment to raff that was eaten. Thanks.
raff, I should have said, of all the parks I’ve been to, Sox Park has the most black fans in the stands, but certainly not A LOT. I would say black fans make up no more than 2% of the fans in the stands @ Sox games @ the most. Again, I’m not including Hispanic black fans from the DR, Cuba, PR, etc. Most MLB parks have the same demographic as a NASCAR race, lily white. You don’t have to take my word for it, MLB has a program trying to get baseball popular in the inner city where basketball rules.
The great deceased Royals owner was a pioneer back in the 70’s when he started the Baseball Academy. It recruited inner city kids and took them to Florida to become baseball players. Some had never played organized baseball. It produced MLB players including Frank White and UL Washingtom. I coached in the inner city Ernie Mehl Little League. The Baseball Academy would keep in touch w/ us coaches looking for kids to groom. I had one kid they looked @ one year. I coached baseball for 30 years. I coached kids who went on to play D1 college ball. This little black kid was the best athlete I ever coached. If you showed him how to do something ONCE, he had it. Incredible muscle memory. Great competitor, great team player. He loved playing SS and pitching. But, I introduced him to catching and that became his favorite position. He liked being in charge! David also had a dark side. I tried to keep in touch w/ him but his mom moved often. When I was working @ the juvenile court a few years later he came through as a burglar. Heartbreaking. Black folk now see baseball as a “white sport.”
raff, I should have said, of all the parks I’ve been to, Sox Park has the most black fans in the stands, but certainly not A LOT. I would say black fans make up no more than 2% of the fans in the stands @ Sox games @ the most. Again, I’m not including Hispanic black fans from the DR, Cuba, PR, etc. Most MLB parks have the same demographic as a NASCAR race, lily white. You don’t have to take my word for it, MLB has a program trying to get baseball popular in the inner city where basketball rules.
The great deceased Royals owner was a pioneer back in the 70’s when he started the Baseball Academy. It recruited inner city kids and took them to Florida to become baseball players. Some had never played organized baseball. It produced MLB players including Frank White and UL Washingtom. I coached in the inner city Ernie Mehl Little League. The Baseball Academy would keep in touch w/ us coaches looking for kids to groom. I had one kid they looked @ one year. I coached baseball for 30 years. I coached kids who went on to play D1 college ball. This little black kid was the best athlete I ever coached. If you showed him how to do something ONCE, he had it. Incredible muscle memory. Great competitor, great team player. He loved playing SS and pitching. But, I introduced him to catching and that became his favorite position. He liked being in charge! David also had a dark side. I tried to keep in touch w/ him but his mom moved often. When I was working @ the juvenile court a few years later he came through as a burglar. Heartbreaking.
Nick, I retrieved your comment at 1:09.
Nick,
Old Comiskey was a nice place, but I prefer U.S. Cellular Field for its ease in getting in and out of the park and comfort at the game. Who is being defensive? I was referring to your comment that there are very few young African American fans at the games. I see a lot at Sox park and I have seen a lot at MInute Maid last year. What does Ray Bolger have to do with anything??
I’ve been to @ least 75 White Sox games. I preferred the old Comiskey Park to Wrigley. I also prefer the blue collar, tough character of Sox fans over the yuppie Cub fans. But, I can like someone, a team, a stadium, and be honest about its flaws as well. When I was in my 20’s I would routinely go to Friday night Sox games and loved the raucous atmosphere. I am no longer in my 20’s. The new Comiskey, which I’ve been to probably 15 times, SUCKS! It is not quite as raucous as the old park, which is good. But, it is much more confrontational, it’s the south side, it’s blue collar shot and beer guys. I get that. I grew up in that atmosphere. But, people can be taken aback by that.
raff, you are a very provincial and defensive. How many MLB ballparks have you been to? I’ve been to 26. Old Comiskey is in my top 3! I loved it. I loved Veeck. I loved sitting in the picnic area before games eating real food from street cart vendors, Italian, Mexican, Polish. Stop being so defensive. Get outside your box. I did not say any team was exempt from crazies. Straw man.
Nick,
you need to go to a White Sox game to broaden your horizons.
Al, I have experienced out of control Cardinal fans at U.S. Cellular field when the White Sox played them in an inter-league game. These Cardinal fans behind us were harassing everyone around them and it only got worse when the Sox put up an 11 run inning. And yes Alcohol was involved. It lead to physical altercations, but it was very heated nonsense. No team is exempt from having crazies who can be made worse by being drunk.
Bruce, Absolutely. They were renegades on the field and in the stands. Al Davis philosophy was, “Just win, baby1” Now the Raiders just suck.
We used to go to Raider games when they were in L.A., Lots of foul language in the stands and saw some big fights in the closed in of the coliseum { visitor and non season ticket holder aeras}.The Raiders seemed to promote that kind of fan.
Nick,
“That’s why when you stay @ a motel it always looks like it’s noon outside your room even when it’s midnight.”
That makes perfect sense. Kudos.
I was a season ticket holder in St. Louis Busch Stadium for many years. I cannot recall very many fights. Everything outside the stadium is well lighted. Lots of cops. Fans at Busch are remarkably friendly, overtly, to other fans. This is commented upon by the sports announcers who come in from national networks. I was in Dodger Stadium a few times and do not recall any bad acting by fans. Once I was in Yankee Stadium with my Cardinal Cap on and with a pal with Cardinal Cap. We were in the bleachers. An usher heard us yakking and said “come on boys”. He walked all the way around to the home plate area and guided us to box seats. All for free. He would not take a tip. “Welcome to New Yark”, he said. Wrigley Field is my favorite stadium. Fans there are civilized. I root for the Cubs unless they are playing the Cards. I hope they don’t ruin that place when they remodel it. Go Cubs. Go Cards.
Alcohol does more than release inhibitions. Alcohol has been directly involved in the slaughter of millions of innocent Americans since prohibition ended, murdered on our streets. Tens of thousands die each year by alcohol influenced drivers presently.
Bill Clinton’s worth of $100,000,000 was achieved after he committed perjury throughout his sworn testimony, was accused by dozens of women of sexual assault, including charges of rape, and after he paid Paula Jones $850,000. Heck of a law abiding decent chap that old slick.
Of greater concern in the long run is the unwillingness of lawyers to take on corruption among their brethren who sport black nightgowns. These criminals are a new breed of offender. Thoroughly knowledgeable in the law, they fasten the rules of the judicial game in their favor, hidden from lay persons. This leaves those who rely on them–and could, should and must take action- for their pay to look the other way. It is a system of decadent procedures designed to screw any and everybody they care to. Virtually impenetrable, the canons warn our democracy will fail under such circumstances.
He who has ears to hear ain’t listening, but he better start
Question for the lawyers: Does this judgement affect other businesses like Walmart, where crimes are committed in their parking lots frequently enough that they can be anticipated and should provide security to prevent them?
This reminds me of soccer (or football depending on where you are) hooligans.
I did not know there was such a wide range among sports fan cultures! But it’s a testament that some teams take it very seriously, and have off-duty cops as security that are fair but firm. A cop who can handle a situation calmly, without escalating, is a gem.