By Ellen Rugeley
A San Diego area school district has agreed to pay $4.4 million to former Mission Hills High School (MHHS) senior linebacker Scott Eveland, who suffered a head injury during a football game. MHHS is located in San Marcos, a town 30 miles north of San Diego.
Eveland, 22, collapsed on the sidelines in the first half of a high school football game on September 14, 2007. He was then rushed to the hospital where doctors removed part of his skull in order to save his life. However, heavy bleeding inside his brain caused extensive damage.
According to his principal attorney, Robert Francavilla, Eveland is now confined to a wheel chair and is unable to stand or speak as a result of his head injury. Eveland now communicates through an iPad or a specially designed keyboard, and someone must support his arm at the elbow so he can do that, according to Francavilla.
The settlement is far less than what Eveland’s attorney once estimated would be necessary to provide Eveland with the type of care he will need for the rest of his life. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Eveland’s insurance, which is being used for extensive therapy, will run out later this year.
Eveland’s attorney had to settle for less than he had hoped after evidence surfaced during the litigation that the defendants transported Eveland to the hospital from the game in a timely manner.
The shift occurred in late 2010 when a former student trainer who had been on the football field that night, , Brianna Bingen, testified during a deposition that Eveland said he had been suffering headaches during the week leading up to the game. According to court filings, Eveland asked one of the trainers if he could sit out the first quarter of the game because he was having headaches and “couldn’t see the football well enough.”
Bingen also said she heard the head trainer, Scott Gommel, raise the issue with Head Coach Chris Hauser, She testified that she heard Hauser yell that “Scott was his (expletive) football player and if he wanted to put Scotty in the game he was going to damn well put him in the game.”
However, school officials claim that none of them were aware that Eveland might have been suffering medical problems when he stepped onto the field that night. The San Marcos Unified School District did not admit any responsibility in the settlement.
The district and attorneys for Eveland released a joint statement saying, “Scott Eveland and his family agree that this settlement does not suggest that the professional and hard working coaches, athletic trainers, administrators and staff on the Mission Hills High School intentionally contributed to the unfortunate and tragic accident that occurred during a high school football game.”
State court judge Thomas Nugent, who has presided over the case since 2008, said he was glad the compromise had been reached. “I understand we have some good news in this case, if there can be good news,” he said.
Eveland’s family also settled with helmet maker Ridell for $500,000 last year.
