New Rulings on the Contact Sports Exception Help Plaintiff's in Premises Liability Cases

We have found a new trend by injury defense firms in arguing that some slip and fall injuries should not be compensible legally based on the "contact sports exception". This is a very narrowly defined exception that bars a plaintiff from suing a co-participant in a sporting activity for normal negligence. Rather, the plaintiff would have to plead and prove willful and wanton or extremely reckless behavior to prevail. Defendants are attempting to apply this exception to corporate entities as well and this had been met with some success.

In this recent 5th District case, the court held the exception did NOT apply to the organizational entity and therefore plaintiff need only plead normal negligence against the entity rather than willful and wanton. We find this development very beneficial for plaintiff's throughout the State of Illinois.

Negligence 5th Dist.
Gvillo v. DeCamp Junction, 2011 IL App (5th) 100262 (October 31, 2011) Madison Co. (CHAPMAN) Reversed.
Plaintiff, the first baseman, was injured during softball game (in informal amateur summer softball league) when Defendant, collided with him while running to first base. Plaintiff alleged that Defendants set up softball field in an unreasonably dangerous manner, by not following safety rules of Amateur Softball Association as to double-base system for first base and in not painting a running lane, thereby causing the collision. These rules do nothing to interfere with vigorous participation in softball. Contact sports exception does not apply to these facts, and thus court erred in granting summary judgment for Defendants. (SPOMER and STEWART, concurring.)