The Supreme Court of Louisiana has reversed an appeals court and sided with a school district, which was sued by a woman, who fell on the bleachers, while attending her grandson’s football game.
Central to the court’s ruling was the belief that the “social utility of the bleachers outweighed any minimal risk” and that the plaintiff was aware of the risk and had other options.
The incident occurred on October 29, 2004, when plaintiff Jeanine Pryor, 69, attended a football game between Barbe High School and New Iberia High School to watch her grandson, who played for BHS. The game was played at Lloyd G. Porter Stadium, a facility owned and maintained by the Iberia Parish School Board, which served as the home stadium. At the time of the game, the plaintiff was recovering from hip surgery performed approximately one year earlier.
Spectator seating is positioned on both the east and west sides of the football field. On the west side of the field, which is traditionally where the home team’s fans sit, the seating consists of uniform and symmetrical wood board seats with concrete risers. This facility sits well off the ground, and has entrance and exit ramps leading to the seats. The west side seating was also equipped with disability access ramps and handicap-accessible seating.
On the east side of the field, which is where the visiting team’s fans traditionally sit, there is a metal frame bleacher approximately 15 feet high and 250 feet long. Spectators are seated on nine wood seat boards with nine wood foot boards. The bleachers have rails around the sides and rear, but do not have rails in the front, and do not have aisles to facilitate entrance or exit. The seat boards are uniform and symmetrical, with the exception of the space between the first and second seat boards, which are positioned approximately eighteen inches apart. All of the other seat boards are approximately eight inches apart in height.
When the plaintiff and her family arrived at the stadium, she ascended the wooden bleachers on the east side of the stadium, or the visitors’ side. She testified “the first seat board was unusually high,” and she could not step up the 18 inches from the first row to the second, so she grabbed the second board and lay on her side so she could swing one leg up at a time. She then stood up, and her daughter assisted her for the remainder of the way up the rows.
At halftime, she had to use the restroom, and she descended the bleachers with her daughter’s assistance. When they came to the 18-inch gap between the first and second row, instead of lying on her side and swinging her legs over the gap as she had done earlier, the plaintiff attempted to simply step down. In the process, she fell and sustained injuries.
She sued the school board, alleging the bleachers were defective. The district court ruled the school board, citing the risk/utility analysis, and the fact that the condition of the bleachers was not unreasonably dangerous.
The plaintiff successfully appealed the ruling, finding there was “no utility or social value in exposing visiting patrons to an 18-inch vertical differential between the seat boards in question.” It rendered judgment apportioning 70 percent fault to the school board, and 30 percent fault to the plaintiff. Pryor was awarded damages in the amount of $530,745.79, consisting of $300,000 in general damages, and $230,745.79 in special damages.
The Supreme Court granted certiorari, leading to the instant opinion.
“We conclude the district court’s factual determination that the bleachers were not unreasonably dangerous is not clearly wrong,” the high court held. “Specifically, the evidence in the record supports the finding that the social utility of the bleachers outweighed any minimal risk posed by the 18-inch gap between the first and second seat boards. The evidence establishes the plaintiff was aware of this open and obvious risk. She could have easily avoided any risk by using additional care (as she did when she first ascended the bleachers), or by choosing to sit on the west side of the stadium where suitable accommodations for persons with physical impairments were provided.”
Jeanine Pryor v. Iberia Parish School Board; S.Ct.La.; No. 2010-C-1683, 2010-1683 (La. 03/15/11); 2011 La. LEXIS 610; 3/15/11
