Tort Law It is in the best interest of Athletic Directors and coaches to know how the rule of law pertains to athletics, physical education classes and recreation as our society today has become very litigious (Wolohan, 2013). In the case where a tort or wrongful act in which an injury occurred, whole departments, institutions, along with the individual who are in charge of oversight may be sued for negligence (Wolohan, 2013). In the past, it usually was just the individual who needed to be concerned. Hence, because of the increase in civil tort suits associated with athletics which are being brought to our court system to be resolved, sports law has become a major course of study at our colleges and universities (Wolohan, 2013). Therefore, having knowledge of what is or is not a tort, may be helpful to sports administrators in how they manage staff and facilities. Furthermore, the three types of common torts that affect athletic departments are negligence, intentional negligence, and defamation. Hence, examining each further may be helpful to athletic administrators and staff in preventing civil tort law suits. Negligence In a school setting, negligence is the most common of the three torts seen in our courts (Decker, 2011). …show more content…
Koffman, plaintiff, a 13 year old student-athlete attending middle school in Botetourt County, Virginia. The plaintiff was injured and broke his humeros bone in his arm during his first year of playing organized football while participating in a tackling drill. The defendant, assistant football coach James Garnett, an employee of Botetourt County School Board, positioned the plaintiff with a football in arms, and unpredictably with force, wrapped his arms around Koffman, lifted him of the ground by at least two feet and knocked him into the football turf (Wolohan, 2013). It is important to note that the plaintiff, an adolescence male, only weighed 144 pounds to the defendant, a mature male adult, weighing 269
In the past recent years, we have heard in the news around cases involving assault and battery cases involving professional athletes or other celebrity figures, however, it is “not uncommon in the sport and recreation environment for a person to be harmed as a result of another’s intentional conduct, both on and off the “field of play” Cotten & Wolohan, p. 214). Nonetheless, it is important to understand that the term “liability” is often not limited to athletes-as-combatants. For example, in Law for recreation & sport managers uses an example from page 215 that discusses a youth football game regarding how a referee was attacked by three coaches and also was tackled by a 14-year-old player, resulting in charges of felony battery. Thus, Hamakawa remarks to say, ”recreation and sport managers should be aware that their organizations are not immune from incidents involving participants, parents and other spectators, coaches, and officials, security
An argument can be based on whether or not the NFL should be held liable when players know what a violent sport they participate in. The NFL is 10 Billion dollar a year business and the majority of their income are made through the exploitation of their players (Grove, J 760). The argument can be made that players should seek compensation for injuries because salaries for injured players are not guaranteed beyond the season in which the injury is sustained (Grove, J 760). It has been posed as whether or not the government should step in to help regulate owed compensation. One way the state or federal government can intervene and impose legislative act...
Gevinson, Matilda. Ethical Rules on Sport’s Justice. Dallas: East Dallas Times, page 21. 2008. Print
It has been said for years that any case of educational malpractice was doomed from the start. Because of this, it was a huge surprise when the Iowa Supreme Court denied the defendant, Cedar Rapids Community School District’s motion for summary judgement. This was a case where a student sued for negligent misrepresentation by a school guidance counselor. One reason why the court may have denied the motion was because it was trying to protect a category of people who were considered especially vulnerable, the student-athlete.
Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) inception in 1906 there have been laws in place to protect the amateurism status of its student athletes. Over the last 100 years the NCAA has morphed into a multimillion dollar business. The success and revenue that student athletes have brought the NCAA and its member institutions has sparked a debate of whether or not to compensate players for paying. Research in the field has focused on the debate and reasons to pay players and reasons not to. There has been little attempt to assert the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the student athletes. The purpose of this study is to examine what the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of the student athletes towards NCAA amateurism laws. Informal face to face interviews with Division 1 student athletes at universities in Indiana will be conducted to get an analysis of the attitudes, opinions, and feelings Division 1 student athletes have towards NCAA Amateurism laws.
Duke University, a female place kicker alleged sexual discrimination when she was not selected for Duke Universities football team, one of the contact sports in the Title IX regulations. Although no woman had ever participated on the team Duke University did not specifically say that football at the university was not a coed team (Stevens, 2004). North Carolina district court granted the university’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that the “regulation did not contain an exception for any particular position that may not require physical contact” (Stevens, 2004). On Appeal, the fourth circuit court reviewed the “separate teams” subsection of Title IX and noted that Duke University had allowed this woman to tryout for coed sports team deeming her qualified to be a member of the team (Stevens, 2004). The verdict in this case is the first documented case awarding punitive damages in a Title IX athletics related case. Title IX’s purpose is to prevent discrimination against women in educational forums, but by institutions diminishing Title IX’s mandate, the commission is allowing and justifying the rationalization of on going discrimination against
These professors argue that student athletes, under common law and NLRB’s (National Labor Relations Board) employee criterion, do in fact fall under the classification of an employee (Cooper). Under common law, four tests determine if someone is an employee or not. Three of these rules are as follows: “(1) the right of others to control a person's activities; (2) whether that person is compensated; and (3) if that person is economically dependent on that compensation.” According to these guidelines the employer-employee relationship is plainly synonymous to that of coaches and student-athletes. For one, coaches have a significant amount of control over their student-athletes’ activities, two, athletic scholarship money is considered compensation, and third, student-athletes are highly dependent on these scholarships for their food, living, and education. Even after realizing that a student-athlete falls under what the law defines as an employee, we can agree that any D1 student-athlete who works upwards of 40 hours a week to perform at a high level of competition for the universities benefit is essentially working a full time job on top of school work
The behaviors of the athletic management staff can affect the team performance and temperance. This has been evident in the case scandal of the Baylor university basketball team. However, there is a great need for those in leadership of the universities to evaluate constantly the behaviors of the staff concerned with various games in the school. This will make such cases to be evaded and when problems occur, they can be timely handled.
Neimark, Jill. "Out of Bounds: The Truth About Athletes and Rape" Mademoiselle May 1991 P196-199, 244-245
LaMorte, Michael. School Law: Cases and Concepts. 4th ed. London: Allyn and Bacon, 1993. Lane, Kenneth, Mary Jane Connelly, Julie Mead, Mark Gooden, and Suzanne Eckes, eds.
... crying.” The plaintiff alleges violations of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 (2000) and civil rights conspiracy in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 (2000). The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint in its entirety on the basis of qualified immunity. The court dismissed the state law claims but found that the defendant had in fact violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights due to the fact that “a state actor, through his agents, cannot randomly beat a student.” The defendant was also denied dismissal of the claim based on qualified immunity because a state actor cannot arbitrarily commit violence against a student. The plaintiff was able to show that Coach Edmundson’s conduct did violate his constitutional right of substantive due process to be free from the infliction of malicious corporal punishment by school official.
Abstract: Collegiate athletes participating in the two revenue sports (football, men's basketball) sacrifice their time, education, and risk physical harm for their respected programs. The players are controlled by a governing body (NCAA) that dictates when they can show up to work, and when they cannot show up for work. They are restricted from making any substantial financial gains outside of their sports arena. These athletes receive no compensation for their efforts, while others prosper from their abilities. The athletes participating in the two revenue sports of college athletics, football and men's basketball should be compensated for their time, dedication, and work put forth in their respected sports.
In this, they could get hurt or injured in the game or at practice. If this happens for many of them, it is game over. Their athletic career had ended even before it got a chance to have a favorable outcome. In addition, since the students are not considered as employees when an injury occurs, they cannot recover, and they are swept under the rug (Dosh 203). Therefore, to further the students dream and ensure that they keep on playing the game they love, it is necessary for them to be given full advantages of an
Sobocinski, Eric J. "Marquette Sports Law Review." College Athletes? What is Fair Compensation? 7th ser. 7 (1996). Print.
In today’s society, especially sporting activities involving youth and young adults, it is imperative to ensure the safety of those involved. When an individual is injured either physically, emotionally or both, there is the concern of legal action towards coaches and the association conducting the sporting activity (Wolohan, 2013). The litigious culture that Americans live under has produced a heightened awareness to avoid negligence in athletic activities through proper training and education (Wolohan, 2013). Negligence is defined as an unintended accident that has caused injury to a person or material goods without a premeditated plan of action to cause pain and suffering (Yiamouyiannis, 2008). For that reason, the