Legal Question in Personal Injury in New Jersey
a foul ball hit my parked car and shattered my windshield during a softball game.
can i sue the township? if not, can i sue the softball team?
my insurance won't cover it.
1 Answer from Attorneys
There is a legal doctrine called assumption of the risk which would probably block your claim. We all knowingly take certain risks in life, so when those risks come to pass the law will not allow us to shift the cost to someone else. Getting hit by a foul ball is the classic example of an assumed risk. When you attend a ballgame you do so despite knowing this might happen. It is a risk you assume, so if it does happen it is one you must deal with.
That the ball hit your car instead of you does not seem significant enough to change the outcome, unless you had parked it someplace where a reasonable person would have believed it was safe from foul balls *and* the reason it turned out not to be safe is that someone else breached a legal duty.