In what can only be described as a “long shot” case, a Maryland jury has ruled that an injury to a woman who was struck on the head by a basketball used in a Long Range Basketball game was a freak accident for which an amusement park is not liable.

Christine Fry alleged that her injury resulted from the failure to protect passers-by from the danger of stray basketballs at the Jolly Roger Amusement Pier in Ocean City, Md. She was walking with her back to the Long Range Basketball game when a ball deflected off the apparatus and struck her in August 2007.

“The game apparatus was not equipped with any safety devices or other means of protecting non-participants or other passers-by from potential injury, nor were any warnings posted indicating that the gaming apparatus could pose a potential hazard,” Fry said in her complaint.

She and her husband sought more than $1 million in damages for negligence and loss of consortium, claiming the impact of the basketball on the top of her head caused a cervical spine injury that required surgery “to essentially create a new neck” for her.

But after a two-day trial, a Worcester County Circuit Court jury found no evidence that Jolly Roger Rides, Inc., was on notice that the game posed a threat to patrons.

The company had submitted evidence that since it began operating the game in 2003, more than 300,000 people have played it and “there have been no previous incidents, injuries, or claims, involving a basketball striking a patron.”

“[I]t is undisputed that Defendant had no knowledge, constructive or otherwise, that the long range basketball game created a dangerous condition on its premises,” Jolly Roger said in a motion for summary judgment.

It probably didn't help Fry's case either that her husband and co-plaintiff, when asked in a  deposition if he considered her injury a freak accident, responded, “One in a million.”

Fry, who originally filed suit in February 2008, also alleged in an amended complaint that a Jolly Roger official defamed her in a deposition by testifying that she appeared intoxicated on the evening of the accident and, when she returned to the pier the following night, cursed at employees and tried to steal items from a game booth.

The defamation claim did not go to trial –- the litigation privilege protects statements made in the course of a deposition.

The complaint did not identify who shot the ball, which must have been traveling at some speed to strike Fry with enough force to injure her. As a result of the injury, the suit says, she has “great difficulty” even washing and blow-drying her hair, “is unable to sit for substantial lengths of time,” and suffers from “debilitating migraines.”

By Matthew Heller
3/17/09