A former Corona del Mar (California) High School freshman football player has reached a $31 million settlement against Newport-Mesa Unified School District over the traumatic brain injury he suffered and subsequent complications during a 2021 practice.
Plaintiff Emanuel “Manny” Garcia was represented by Brian Panish, Jesse Creed, and Hunter Norton of Panish Shea Ravipudi.
At the heart of the plaintiff’s complaint was his attorneys’ contention that the district was negligent in the maintenance of its field.
In the wake of the settlement, Attorney Creed noted that the district “has taken responsibility for its failure to address the dangerous conditions of its field that harmed many children for more than a decade. An unknown danger of high school sports is the hardness of their fields. The NFL and NCAA have regulations and inspection standards, but youth football remains wholly unregulated, exposing our kids to the serious danger of head injuries.”
By way of background, Garcia was participating in a regularly scheduled practice on March 9, 2021 when he suffered the injury due to “the uneven terrain,” leading to a “life-altering brain bleed resulting in a traumatic brain injury with severe cognitive defects and emotional harms,” according to the law firm. “Manny went from a top student to barely passing and suffered a lifetime of mental, physical, and emotional challenges.”
In a February 2022 lawsuit, the plaintiff, through his attorneys, claimed that Newport-Mesa Unified School District “received repeated notice of the dangerous conditions of its natural turf fields from various field coaches, including football coaches, soccer coaches, and lacrosse coaches. These coaches warned specifically about the risk of head injuries, stating in one 2016 email that ‘due to the lack of grass and the lack of watering, the field has become too hard and will directly lead to an increase in head injuries.’ Another parent called for the District to do industry-standard testing of field hardness to ensure the fields were safe, which the District did not do. Notice about the dangerous field conditions continued up to the 2021 football season.
“Despite repeated notice of the condition, the District failed to take action to make the natural turf fields safe and continued to allow, and require, student athletes to practice and play there.”
In September 2022, the school district’s counsel, McCune & Harber, filed an answer to the complaint that stated, “at the time of the accident … the plaintiff was negligent or at fault and failed to use that degree of care and caution which a reasonably prudent person would have used under the same or similar circumstances.”
Furthermore, Newport-Mesa Unified spokeswoman Annette Franco issued the following statement to the media: “Over the years, we have made substantial improvements to our fields and athletic facilities, and we remain dedicated to their ongoing maintenance. Additionally, we have completed numerous projects to enhance the quality of our athletic spaces and will continue these efforts to ensure the success and safety of our student athletes.”
However, the plaintiff’s claim was compelling enough to lead to a settlement.
Creed told the media that unregulated standards for sports fields in youth sports is one of the “silent dangers in California field sports.”
“There’s a lot of research about how to maintain fields to protect athletes, including our children,” he said. “The district had even become aware, as a result of parent complaints about those standards, and they did nothing.”
