RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) – A young girl injured by a foul ball at her dad's business gathering at a Durham Bulls game has lost her lawsuit against the team.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 31 that the so-called “Baseball Rule” applied to the case of Angelina DeBlasio, an 11-year-old girl whose family relocated from Pittsburgh to North Carolina in 2015 to work for Panasonic Avionics.
At a company meet-and-greet held at a Durham Bulls game on Aug. 5, 2015, she was struck in the face by a foul ball in the stadium’s picnic area. She suffered dislocated teeth and broken bones in and around her jaw.
The club contested it adequately warned those in the picnic area of the dangers of foul balls and other objects entering the stands under the state’s “Baseball Rule.”
“Plaintiff’s argument that she did not consider herself to be a ‘spectator’ because she was at the stadium to attend a company picnic… does not preclude application of the Baseball Rule,” Judge Linda McGee wrote.
“Even though Plaintiff had no plans to watch the game and considered herself to be attending a picnic, there can be no serious dispute from the evidence that she did not know she was at a picnic in a baseball stadium while a baseball game was taking place.”
DeBlasio claimed she lacked sufficient knowledge of the game of baseball to understand foul balls could be hit into the stands, but a history of watching games on TV led the Court of Appeals to rule otherwise.
She also argued the picnic area was negligently designed because it distracts users from the game.
“The record shows that Plaintiff was sitting at a picnic table that was directly adjacent to the low wall and on a side with views of home plate at the time she was struck by a foul ball,” McGee wrote.
“No evidence suggests—and Plaintiff points to none—that the foul ball that hit her was obscured by an umbrella or player from the opposing team.”