WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – A Florida school district will get away with placing a concrete barrier close to one of its soccer fields because the injured player signed an injury waiver before his game.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled for the School Board of Broward County on Jan. 6 in a lawsuit brought by varsity soccer player Ethan Elalouf, who was knocked into an unpadded cement barrier used for field events that was placed close to the Piper High soccer field.
Elalouf’s lawsuit, which alleged injuries to his hand and wrist, said the type of negligence involved in placing the barrier there and not covering it with padding didn’t apply to the liability waiver he signed before the game. Two of three appeals judges said he failed to preserve this argument for his appeal.
They felt he did not argue the release’s language was ambiguous in the trial court, only that it failed to include the word “negligence.
The majority also ruled that language regarding injuries being written in a smaller font did not void the waiver’s terms.
“This is not a case where terms were ‘hidden in a maze of fine print,’” Judge Spencer Levine wrote. “The entire release encompassed less than a single page.”
Judge Martha Warner dissented.
“I would find that appellant did preserve the argument raised on appeal by arguing that the agreement was not clear and unequivocal,” Warner wrote.
“Appellant argued that it did not clearly and specifically release negligence, and he referred to that portion of the release which refers to risks that are a natural part of the activity. He noted that the danger of a concrete barrier so close to the field of play is not a natural part of the activity or an inherent risk of participation in the sport.”