Legal Question in Personal Injury in Washington

I was participating in the game of Softball at work. It is not part of my job, company allows time for employees to have some fun.

My team batting. I was running from Base1 to Base2. The fielder near Base2 (short stop) got the ball and got the the base before me, while I am still running along the line, in the split second he tryies to get double play and throws the ball reall hard directly in my face. I lose 4 teeth and get 14 stitches on the inside my mouth. The guy who through the ball already denied paying for dental expenses.

What are my legal options?


Asked on 8/25/11, 12:13 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Jonathan Baner Baner & Baner

Might be able to work up a worker's compensation case, but I am not sure. It gets pretty fact intensive when trying to ascertain whether this was something that occurred during the course of employment, but it's been done before.

A private lawsuit against the ball thrower is plausible, but if I were his attorney I would be screaming consent / assumption of risk and that when your running between bases you're supposed to not run in the line of throwing, blah blah blah.

Interestingly, however, is that it is softball. The "soft" portion of the word sort of connotes that the goal of the game is more fun based and not hyper aggressive. If the company wanted its employees to be playing a real sport like that then they would have a hockey league (sorry, couldn't resist that comment - don't mean to be flippant, I know you've suffered real injury).

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Answered on 8/26/11, 10:40 am


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