By Jon Hughes and Kacie Kergides, of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP
On April 4, 2012, something that has happened thousands of times before—and thousands of times since—left one student-athlete catastrophically injured: a high school baseball coach instructed one of his players to slide into third base.
Sliding into the Facts
In April 2012, Jake Mesar was a fifteen-year-old freshman on the junior varsity baseball team at Bound Brook High School in Bound Brook, New Jersey. During the second inning of Bound Brook’s first baseball game of the season—and Mesar’s first game of his high school career—Mesar hit a line drive into the outfield, scoring two runs for his team. As Mesar began to make his way around the bases, John Suk, Bound Brook’s third base coach, instructed Mesar to slide into third base. Mesar slid, and in doing so, suffered a catastrophic ankle injury. The injury was so severe it required multiple surgeries and a stem cell injection. Mesar was also required to wear an external stabilizing frame to keep the bones properly aligned, and, at one point, a doctor told Mesar that amputation would be required. Fortunately, Mesar ultimately recovered, but doctors recommended that he never play baseball again.
Swinging for the Fences (and the Courthouse)
Three years after his catastrophic injury, Mesar and his family filed a lawsuit in 2015 against Suk and the school district for negligence alleging that Suk’s were so reckless that they constituted “an extreme departure from ordinary care in which a high degree of danger is present.”
The judge initially dismissed the complaint finding that “recklessness was the applicable standard under the factual circumstances, and plaintiff failed to plead recklessness.” Mesar appealed, and the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey reversed the lower court’s decision and found that “defendants were on notice and fairly apprised of plaintiff’s allegation that their conduct was reckless, and dismissal of the complaint for failure to plead recklessness was mistaken.” The case went to trial in June 2019.
Throughout the litigation, Suk conceded in his deposition that he did in fact signal Mesar to slide into third base during the second inning, and during the trial, Suk testified that he “[made] the decision for [Mesar] to slide, to avoid injury and to avoid contact (with the third basemen), so [Mesar] could approach the bag safely . . . .” Suk continued, “It was going to be a bang-bang play.”
In their attempt to persuade the jury that Suk’s actions were so reckless that they constituted “an extreme departure from ordinary care in which a high degree of danger is apparent,” Mesar’s counsel focused on several issues while cross-examining Suk. First, that Suk was not focused on Mesar as he approached third base but was instead focused on runners heading to home plate as a result of Mesar’s base hit. Second, that Suk instructed Mesar to slide too late and too close to third base, thereby not giving Mesar the requisite distance and notice to safely complete the slide. Lastly, plaintiff’s counsel suggested that Suk was not qualified to act as third base coach because Suk never received any instruction or schooling to serve as a third base coach.
After the jurors deliberated for approximately two hours, the foreman announced that seven jurors found Suk and the other co-defendants not liable, while one juror found them to be liable. In other words, Suk was found not responsible for Mesar’s injury, and Mesar was not entitled to any compensation for injuries he suffered as a result of the alleged recklessness of Suk and the other co-defendants.
Throwing a Curve Ball at Youth Sports
If Suk and the other co-defendants were held liable, it could have fundamentally changed not only high school sports, but youth sports in general. Individuals would no longer be willing to volunteer to serve as coaches. Schools might even no longer be willing to have teams as they would most likely be required to carry expensive insurance policies. Coaches would be scrutinized for everything that occurred on the field, court, mat, or pool.
Reducing liability in high school sports has been a hot topic lately, as it pertains to catastrophic injuries, particularly focusing around concussions. In May 2019, the National Federation of High School Associations published an article entitled, “10 Steps to Reduce Liability of School Sports, Athletics Personnel.”[23] Interestingly, none of the ten steps identified in the article directly relate to duties that high school coaches have to their student athletes once the athletic competition commences. Instead, the article discusses topics such as: (i) Locker Room Supervision; (ii) Reasonable and Safe Discipline for Student-Athletes; (iii) Preventative Measures Against Hazing and Sexual Harassment; and (iv) Obligations to Pregnant and Parenting Students.
Moreover, while many other articles discuss a coach’s duties or obligations as they pertain to injuries sustained by student athletes, most of these articles address preventative measures (e.g., use of safe and appropriate equipment) or best practices with respect practice related injuries (e.g., proper hydration and rest), as opposed to instruction or guidance related to mitigation or elimination of student athlete injuries sustained while the sport is being played.[24]
While Suk was found not liable, this lawsuit raises many concerns for schools and coaches. As a way to minimize their liability, schools and coaches should make sure their policies and protocols are up to date and in compliance with the standards set by organizations such as the National Athletic Trainers Association and the National Federation of High School Associations.
Despite taking all of the necessary precautions, however, this case demonstrates that all it takes is one injury, one lawsuit, and one adverse jury verdict to forever change the landscape of organized high school sports. And in the litigious society in which we live, a repeat lawsuit like this one is more likely than not. Attaching legal liability to every in-game decision made by a coach would be a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of coaches and would turn Monday-morning quarterbacks (second guessing every decision from a strategy standpoint) into Monday-morning lawyer-backs (second guessing every decision from a legal cause of harm standpoint). Fortunately, the Defendants retired the side and the jury kept organized high school sports in fair territory, for the time being.
[23] Len Green, “10 Steps to Reduce Liability of School Sports, Athletics Personnel (May 17, 2019), https://www.nfhs.org/articles/10-steps-to-reduce-liability-of-school-sports-athletics-personnel/
[24] Two notable exceptions to this general comment are lawsuits directed at coaches and sponsors of the athletic program for injuries either: (i) allegedly sustained after a student athlete became concussed; or (ii) allegedly sustained after a student athlete became dehydrated.
