The Sacramento Kings have announced “a very positive settlement” from Ledraplastic, M-F Athletics DBA, Perform Better and Ball Dynamics regarding the Gymnic fit ball failure on October 9, 2009, which resulted in significant injuries to Kings swingman Francisco Garcia.
The Kings and Garcia were represented by Roger A. Dreyer of Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP and Brian Panish of Panish Shea & Boyle, LLP.
“The matter has been resolved in an extremely favorable manner for the Sacramento Kings franchise and Francisco Garcia,” said Dreyer. “We are very pleased with the outcome and look forward to a stringent policy informing consumers of the potential danger of utilizing weights when working out with the Gymnic fit ball.”
Filed in December 2010, the Kings organization and its ownership group indicated one of
the driving motivations behind this litigation was to publicize the dangers associated in using weights with this type of exercise equipment. Considering the method of weight training in conjunction with Gymnic fit balls had become widely-practiced by trainers and fitness centers, and it was the Kings’ position that the manufacturer and the distributors were mindful of the potential dangers for the equipment to fail and result in severe injuries. The matter was set to be tried before the Honorable William Shubb in Federal District Court on January 29, 2013.
In an agreement to keep financial terms of the settlement confidential, the manufacturer,
Ledraplastic, agreed to circulate a letter informing and reminding all distributors that Gymnic fit balls should be used with body weights only and are never under any circumstances to be utilized in combination with weights in order to avoid risk of potential injuries, and advising its distributors to forward this letter to their customers as soon as possible.
“It was critical to the Sacramento Kings and the Maloof family that users were informed of the potential dangers of utilizing weights with this product, and doing so could lead to a devastating injury such as what happened to Francisco Garcia,” said Dreyer.
Dreyer added that it was “apparent through the course of the litigation that distributors of this product were aware of the failures of these balls when used with weights, yet the distributors, M-F Athletics and Ball Dynamics, had repeatedly failed to provide notice to any of its customers of these prior problems. Joe Maloof took the extraordinary step of notifying all members of the National Basketball Association of the incident and made certain all teams were mindful of the need to avoid what had become a standard exercise regime of using the fitness balls with barbells in order to increase core strength and balance.”
Brian Panish of Panish Shea & Boyle, LLP added that “the word is now out in the fitness industry that these balls should absolutely not be used with weights.”
