{"id":2649,"date":"2016-06-15T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/68.183.99.185\/diamondlaw-ca\/?p=2649"},"modified":"2021-12-31T03:54:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T03:54:25","slug":"sports-liability-when-are-you-just-out-of-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/sports-liability-when-are-you-just-out-of-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Liability – When Are You Just out of Luck?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

#AskHeikkiCoxKokkajoon<\/a><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sport can be an exhilarating test of skill and athletic ability.\u00a0 \u00a0Millions of Canadians play and compete in amateur sports every year and increased risk may be part of the attraction.\u00a0 Although the likelihood of being injured in sport has decreased over time, there are times when injuries in sport may cross the line from those inherent to the sport itself, to the unanticipated. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Legal actions resulting from sporting injuries generally fall into three categories:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
  1. Occupiers\u2019 Liability \u2013 against the property owner for unsafe conditions.<\/li>\r\n
  2. Negligence of participants causing harm to others as a result of reckless or careless behaviour.<\/li>\r\n
  3. Intentional harm inflicted by participants on others \u2013 physical fights between participants.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    It can be difficult to prove negligence in a case involving a sports injury.\u00a0 The law of negligence asks five questions in every case:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      \r\n
    1. Did the person who caused the harm, owe you a duty to be careful?<\/li>\r\n
    2. Did the person who harmed you discharge their duty to the expected standard of care?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n
    3. Did that person\u2019s failure to discharge his duty to the expected standard of care, cause you harm?<\/li>\r\n
    4. Was the harm you suffered foreseeable by the person who harmed you, such that they should have known their failure could result in such harm?<\/li>\r\n
    5. Did their failure result in injury to you?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      Participants in sporting activities such as hockey, are assumed to have accepted a certain degree of risk that is inherent to playing the game, in exchange for mutual acceptance from other players.\u00a0 This is not to be confused with the concept of \u201cvoluntary assumption of risk\u201d in sport.\u00a0 Most hockey players are well aware of the violent contact associated with playing.\u00a0 In fact, most Canadians know a hockey player or three whose teeth were knocked out, or who suffered a concussion during play.\u00a0 If the harm suffered is in keeping with the inherent risks associated with playing the game, it will be difficult to prove that someone causing that type of harm, was negligent, even where the rules of play have been breached. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      Proving that a participant in a sporting activity \u201cvoluntarily assumed the risk\u201d of harm, is a defence that can be used to defeat a claim of negligence.\u00a0 By voluntarily assuming the risk of a sport, the participant is effectively consenting to accept the risk.\u00a0 To prove this, the defendant has to show that the injured person agreed to give up their legal right to sue and willingly accepted the risk, fully understanding that they might suffer injuries by participating.\u00a0\u00a0 This is difficult to prove without written evidence.\u00a0 For this reason, many participants of sports such as skiing, scuba diving, or even snow-tubing, are asked to sign \u201cwaivers of liability.\u201d\u00a0 In these cases, the court will be put to the task of carefully examining the wording of the waiver and the circumstances that surrounded entering the agreement in the first place, by asking:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

        \r\n
      1. Is the waiver of liability valid?\u00a0 Did the person seeking to uphold the waiver, know that the person who signed it, really didn\u2019t understand it?<\/li>\r\n
      2. Is the waiver of liability worded properly to catch the harm suffered by the injured party?<\/li>\r\n
      3. Is there some other good reason not to enforce the waiver, for example, would enforcing the waiver of liability be contrary to public interest?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

        Skiers know that resorts often post large waivers of liability, and print the waivers of liability on the backs of lift-tickets.\u00a0 Not reading a waiver or not having it explained to you won\u2019t necessarily win you any sympathy with the court.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
        Sometimes tempers flare and violence erupts on the ice or field of play.\u00a0 Intentional conduct causing harm to others in this circumstance, may go beyond the inherent risks assumed by players.\u00a0\u00a0 Certainly, players in the heat of the game should not be held to the polite standards of society, but there is a point at which deliberate conduct goes well beyond what is acceptable.\u00a0 Assault and battery is never appropriate.\u00a0 Assault in civil cases refers to actions that create the imminent fear of being harmed such as verbal threats, and battery refers to direct contact with someone.\u00a0 These cases are driven by their facts.\u00a0 I once had a case involving a man who was severely injured and left disabled during a gentlemen\u2019s league hockey game, after a member of the opposing team struck him repeatedly, after becoming uncontrollably enraged about an accidental hit during play.\u00a0 My client was left permanently disabled with multiple fractures in his leg.\u00a0 In that case, the court agreed that the defendant\u2019s intentional conduct was out of keeping with the inherent risks associated with the game.\u00a0 The court also found the owner of the hockey arena to be liable for failing to enforce its own rules of play and prohibit participation by the player who was well known for his violent tendencies during previous games.<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

        If you\u2019ve been injured while involved in a sporting activity, we would be pleased to meet with you and discuss your case, with no financial obligations.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        #AskHeikkiCoxKokkajoon Sport can be an exhilarating test of skill and athletic ability.\u00a0 \u00a0Millions of Canadians play and compete in amateur sports every year and increased risk may be part of the attraction.\u00a0 Although the likelihood of being injured in sport has decreased over time, there are times when injuries in sport may cross the line…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-2649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-askheikkicoxkokkajoon","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diamondlaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}