By Gina McKlveen
Last year, the Washington Football Team, recently renamed the Washington Commanders, lost its final regular season game 20-16 to the Philadelphia Eagles at FedEx Field in Landover, MD.
But that may not have been the only loss the franchise suffered that day.
As the Eagles were leaving the field, several Eagles fans leaned against the railing, causing it to collapse. They nearly struck Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts as he was exiting the field. While Hurts was not injured, the Eagles fans (Plaintiffs) were not so fortunate. They allegedly suffered initial and ongoing injuries after the railing collapsed, which led the plaintiffs to file a negligence claim against the Washington Commanders, WFI Stadium, Inc., and other football stadium staffing companies (Defendants).
The complaint outlines the customary practice following NFL games, both at home and away, in which fans attempt to greet players from the stands as they exit the field through a tunnel toward their respective locker rooms. Here, Plaintiffs allege in their complaint that they sought and gained permission from stadium employees before entering the area adjacent to the tunnel where the Eagles players would walk though as they left the field. Those stadium employees then guided the fans to the fence along the stands that was known to be a regular gathering spot following a football game for fans to attempt to interact with players with a handshake, high-five, or similar contact like obtaining a player’s wristband or other articles from the players’ uniforms.
Furthermore, Plaintiffs claim that since this was a regular gathering spot for fan-to-player interactions after games, Defendants knew or should have known the likelihood that fans would reach over and lean up against the fencing that separated the fans in the stands from the players below. Yet, no stadium employee or agent ever warned Plaintiffs not to lean on the fence when they directed Plaintiffs to the gathering spot. Relatedly, Plaintiffs also argue that Defendants knew or should have known that weight of the fans leaning on the fence would place extreme pressure on the fence. Nevertheless, the only thing that supported one section of the fence to another were merely zip ties made of thin plastic. As a result of the pressure and this design defect, the fence ultimately collapsed and Plaintiffs fell nearly 10 feet onto a concrete surface, tumbling over one another, some even getting caught in the fence, and just missed landing on the Hurts.
Afterwards, a few of the fallen fans turned the malfunctioned fence mishap into an opportunity to personally greet a similarly stunned Hurts before stadium employees intervened “forcefully lifting some of the plaintiffs and others without first determining what, if any, injuries they had suffered from the fall.” Plaintiffs’ complaint even accuses Defendants’ response after the fall as falling below a reasonable standard of care because they were “physically and forcefully directed and shuttled back up over the wall from where they had fallen” and shouted at using expletives. In fact, Plaintiffs argue that video footage from the fall exhibit Hurts showing a higher regard for their health, safety, and welfare by providing greater care, help and assistance to Plaintiffs than Defendants did in this instance.
Due to these inactions on the part of Defendants, Plaintiffs list their serious injuries from the fall, some still on-going over seven months later, including cervical strains, muscle strains, bone contusions, cuts, bruises, headaches, and other long-term physical and emotional effects. Consequently, Plaintiffs brought three causes of action against Defendants (1) for negligence and gross negligence against the Washington Commanders and WFI Stadium, Inc., (2) for negligence and gross negligence against Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC), and (3) for negligence and gross negligence against Company Does, the maintenance subcontractors at the stadium property of FedEx Field.
To bring a successful negligence claim against any defendant, the plaintiff must prove four essential elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. The duty includes the standard of care which is owed to the plaintiff by the defendant. The standard of care which is owed to a plaintiff varies according to the law of torts depending on whether the plaintiff is a trespasser, a licensee, or an invitee. Trespassers are owed the lowest standard of care, while licensees and invitees have higher standards of care. An invitee differs from a licensee in that the invitee has been invited onto the premises for some kind of business purpose like fixing a homeowner’s drains, entering into a grocery store or attending a football game, whereas a licensee is more like a social guest such as going over to friend’s house to watch a football game. When there is a dangerous condition on the premises that an invitee is not aware of or warned of and the owner knows or should know of that danger through a reasonable inspection, then the owner owes a legal duty to the invitee. If the owner fails meet this duty or falls below the required standard of care, then the next element—breach—has occurred. This breach of a legal duty must also be the cause, both the actual or in-fact cause and proximate cause, of the plaintiff’s injury. In other words, had it not been for the defendant’s breach or his or her duty of care, the plaintiff would not have been injured and the resulting injury from the breach was foreseeable to the defendants. Finally, there must also be an injury, harm, or damage suffered by the plaintiff that is not purely economic to recover from a defendant in a negligence suit.
It appears from Plaintiffs’ complaint in this case that all the aforementioned elements are met. Specifically, the Washington Commanders and WFI Stadium, Inc. are the owners of the stadium and therefore, owed a duty of ordinary care to maintain a safe stadium for Plaintiffs as business invitees on the January 2, 2022 game day. In addition, the Washington Commanders and WFI Stadium, Inc. are bound by the NFL Rules and Regulations to meet certain minimum standards regarding safety requirements and emergency procedures in the event of an accident to football fans at any NFL stadium. Such safety requirements according to Plaintiffs included securing the fencing that Defendants directed Plaintiffs toward and reasonably knew or should have known Plaintiffs would lean against. However, the Defendants’ failure to sufficiently secure the fence or to warn the Plaintiffs not to lean against it, breach the duty owed to them. “In light of these failures, the inadequacy of the railings and the unreasonable design, maintenance, and adequacy of the railings, WFI and the Washington Commanders grossly neglected the duty of care owed to Plaintiffs in a highly dangerous situation which ultimately was the cause of Plaintiffs falling and suffering injuries.” Since these occurrences were foreseeable and easily preventable by Defendants, each Plaintiff seeks $75,000 in excess for the resulting and continuous damages they incurred.
Similarly, against CSC, “a highly visible security and crowd control organization,” Plaintiffs argue the company knew or should have known upon routinely observing “at professional football games, college football games, and other sporting events” the risk and safety hazard posed to both fans and players when gathered as close as possible at the tunnels exiting the playing field at the end of each game. Despite the “obvious risk of danger at this critical location and this critical time,” CSC also breached its duty of care to the Plaintiffs which resulted in their subsequent injuries. Lastly, Plaintiffs’ complaint contends Company Does is jointly and severally liable for Plaintiffs injuries because of their failure to “provide inspection, repair, maintenance, design and oversight of all physical facilities” at the stadium, which were responsibilities the company was hired to perform by the WFI Companies, Inc. and the Washington Commanders, prior to the fence collapse.
At press time, Defendants had not responded to the complaint.
