Sport Waiver Risk Fitness Law

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This timely article is 1 of 5 being re-run in light of the Penn State sex scandal!
D. Michael Pfahl,
President, DMP Consulting, Inc.
This article first appeared in Sadlersports.com and serves as an excellent concluding article for the John Sadler series on background testing.

Call it “sixth-sense”, “gut-feeling” or that “little voice” we all have it and make the conscious choice to listen or ignore it whenever it makes itself known.  Have you ever wondered if every person who was willing to say yes and step up to …

By
Doyice Cotten and Mary Cotten

In Roer v. 150 West End Avenue Owners Corp. (2010 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 6353), Jason Roer brought action seeking damages for personal injuries sustained in the basement gym of the apartment building where he and his wife reside. While exercising on a treadmill in the gym, he was caused to fall and suffer injury when a loose exercise ball was pulled beneath the belt of his treadmill. He had signed a waiver intended to relieve management of liability for negligence contained in his gym membership contract. …

By Doyice Cotten
Bill McMillen, Sr., was injured when he was rear-ended in a stock car race. He claimed substantial injuries including some permanent impairment and loss of general health, strength, vitality, and an inability to enjoy certain pleasures of life (McMillen v. Hummingbird Speedway, Inc., 2010 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 270). At issue in the case was whether McMillan could claim confidentiality or privilege in regard to materials he placed on his social network site – Facebook.
After reviewing the public portion of McMillan’s Facebook site on …

This is the seventh of an 8-part series dealing with insurance myths. We all know that insurance is one of the major risk management tools for any sport, fitness, or recreation business. For many of us, however, insurance is just a big mystery that we entrust to others. After this series, you will know many pitfalls and minefields to avoid. Thanks go to Daniel P. Hale for contributing this series to Sportwaiver.com. Segments 1-3 focused on property insurance, segments 4-5 covered liability insurance, and segment 6 addressed two areas …

This article by Doyice Cotten illlustrates that the language used is crucial to the enforcement of indemnification agreements.

Two recent equine cases illustrate the importance of the indemnification language used in liability waivers. In Polechek v. Schina (2010 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 674), the owner of a horse that was running loose around the track in the wrong direction attempted to keep her horse from escaping from the track.  She moved into a gap in the rail of the track and shouted “Whoa.” The horse ran over her causing substantial …