Confidential
Settlement – $335,000Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Pomona
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Thomas P. Cacciatore
(Law Office of Thomas P. Cacciatore)
Defendant
Michael C. Kellar
(Robinson & Keller)
Experts
Plaintiff
Randolph Betts
(medical)
Craig Cunningham
(technical)
Damian G. Curran
(technical)
Sohiel Samimi
(medical)
Defendant
Edward K. Takahashi
(technical)
Facts
On July 26, 1998, the plaintiff was playing baseball with a sponsored league, defendant National
Adult Baseball Association, at West Covina High School. Plaintiff was wearing steel cleats. He
attempted to catch a ball by running back in a normal fielder fashion, keeping his eye on the ball.
He tripped on a raised asphalt berm and drainage ditch that was within the perimeter of the
fence. The berm and ditch were unnatural and unexpected conditions on a baseball field not
readily apparent to a player in left field. Normally, baseball fields either have grass all the way to
the fence, or a dirt warning track along the fence to warn fielders they are approaching the fence.
Here, the raised berm with a slightly downward slope presented an artificial hazard to players
and an asphalt strip that would cause baseball cleats to slip.
Injuries
The plaintiff had four arthroscopic surgeries to correct knee injuries. The plaintiff had pre-existing Osgood- Schlatters, which defendants claimed caused additional injuries.
Other Information
An arbitration was held before Sam Cianchetti of IVAMS.
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