Another teen is suing for a school-related sports activity. Earlier this season, a teen sued his school of a dodgeball incident, now Alina Cerda, 15, is suing the city and her high school softball coach for not teaching her how to slide correctly.
Cerda injured her ankle needing "six screws and a metal plate" after sliding into a "mudding base path" (NY Daily News). In addition to the physical therapy and the surgery, her New York personal injury attorney may add pain and suffering for missing out on her freshman season: her team went to the playoffs that year.
Does Cerda have a strong personal injury case?
Her injury attorney says that Brown, her high school coach, was not personally instructing the sliding drills; he was having the more experienced players teach the girls how to slide.
There could be liability there since he was the certified teacher and he was having the older girls demonstrate. However, if he was still supervising the drills, he might be covered.
Cerda's injury attorney would need to show that he was at fault for her injury. In a personal injury case to be held liable, the defendant has to:
1) Owe a legal duty to the plaintiff,
2) fail to fulfill the duty,
3) be the cause of her accident or injury. (FindLaw)
This will all depend on the lesson itself. If he was attentive, then he fulfilled his duty to teach Cerda. If he was not attentive, then she has a case.
Related Resources:
- What is negligence? (FindLaw)
- Who Might Be Responsible for Negligence? (FindLaw)
- New York personal injury attorney.
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