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Speaker 1: Most people who go to baseball games dream of catching

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Speaker 1: a foul ball, But what happens if a foul ball

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Speaker 1: hits you? The New York Yankees have been facing a

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Speaker 1: lawsuit from a private equity lawyer who was badly injured

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Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven when a foul ball hit him

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Speaker 1: in the head during a baseball game. But a New

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Speaker 1: York State appeals court has now thrown out the lawsuit

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Speaker 1: based upon an old doctrine called the Baseball Rule, which

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Speaker 1: protects baseball teams from foulball lawsuits. Here to talk with

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Speaker 1: us about the lawsuit and uh enlighten us about the

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Speaker 1: baseball rule is Bloomberg News legal reporter Bob n for us. Bob,

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Speaker 1: what happened in this lawsuit and how did the Yankees

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Speaker 1: end up winning it? Well? He gut named Andy's Latnick.

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Speaker 1: The lawyer talking about was at a baseball game in

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven a Yankee stadium. Uh. He was enjoying

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Speaker 1: the game with his son and his son's friends. It

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Speaker 1: was a rainy day and he got hit uh in

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Speaker 1: the eye with a line drive down the right field line. Um.

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Speaker 1: He uh claim ahims that his view was obstructed by

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Speaker 1: the umbrellas, and that was the reason he didn't see

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Speaker 1: the thing coming. He needed surgery to reconstruct his eye.

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Speaker 1: Pocket he had about twenty five dollars in unreimbursed medical expenses,

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Speaker 1: and so he sued the Yankees. Um he was unsuccessful

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Speaker 1: at first to judge threw it out in a judge

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Speaker 1: of the Bronx through it out, and just yesterday ay

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Speaker 1: an appeals court here in New York uh decided against

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Speaker 1: his appeal. Of that that ruling, Bob, tell us more

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Speaker 1: about the baseball rule, Well, the baseball rule goes back

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Speaker 1: about a century. Courts back then and and a lot

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Speaker 1: of them since then, have said that look, when you

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Speaker 1: go to a baseball game, you know that the balls

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Speaker 1: go into the stands, that even bats shattered bats can

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Speaker 1: go into the stands, and that that the responsibility of

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Speaker 1: the team is to provide screening behind the plate where

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Speaker 1: you know you're most most likely to get hit, and

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Speaker 1: that if people are concerned, they can, you know, go

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Speaker 1: sit by seats behind the plate. Um as long as

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Speaker 1: the team provides that measure of safety, that's all they

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Speaker 1: have to provide. And the fan is basically left on,

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Speaker 1: you know, left to his own if he if he

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Speaker 1: gets he or she gets hit. So it's a century

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Speaker 1: old rule. Back when the way people watch games, the

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Speaker 1: kinds of things that we're going on at stadiums, the

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Speaker 1: whole atmosphere was very different, wasn't it. Wasn't it back then? Well,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly right. Safety advocates say that. Look, you know

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Speaker 1: that back then, you had you know, baseball was in

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Speaker 1: the dead ball era, and so you know, people didn't

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Speaker 1: hit the ball as hard. Uh and uh, certainly legal.

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Speaker 1: You know, the law was different back then, and you

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Speaker 1: didn't have people looking at their phones, people looking at

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Speaker 1: exploding scoreboards. Uh and and in today's modern game, baseball

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Speaker 1: fans are much close straight to the action, and some

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Speaker 1: of these intimate ballparks have been built in recent decades.

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Speaker 1: So so safety advocates that people trying to sue over

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Speaker 1: injuries claim, you know, it's it's a different world now. So, Bob,

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Speaker 1: it was just about a four paragraph opinion by the

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Speaker 1: Appellate Division in New York. Did the court just basically

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Speaker 1: follow the baseball rule. Yeah, that's exactly right, the court

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Speaker 1: ruled in less than three weeks um At the argument

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Speaker 1: on October four, it was pretty clear to the panels

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Speaker 1: from the panel of four judges that look, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're bound by this rule. It's it's not our place

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Speaker 1: to to to throw out the rule. Um, I can

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Speaker 1: tell you I just emailed with uh Andy's a lot

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Speaker 1: like the plaintiff in this case. He has decided he's

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Speaker 1: going to appeal to New York State's Court of Appeals

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Speaker 1: in all the eight and so that's the court that

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Speaker 1: that that really has the opportunity to decide whether it

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Speaker 1: wants to to reconsider the rule and decide that it

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Speaker 1: should no longer apply. Tell me something during the oral

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Speaker 1: arguments in the Appellate Division case, and didn't one of

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Speaker 1: the judges suggest that zlot Nick may have a better

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Speaker 1: time with his argument at the state's highest court. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly right, and that and that was kind of

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Speaker 1: a tip off. I mean, when a judge tells you, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know, you may have a better shot in another court,

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Speaker 1: you've got to figure that they're they're not gonna be

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Speaker 1: ruling for you, Bob. You know, not that long ago

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Speaker 1: a little girl was hit in the face at Yankee

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Speaker 1: Stadium by when Yankee third basement Todd Fraser hit a

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Speaker 1: ball to the stands and she got injured. And you know,

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Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talk about increasing the netting

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Speaker 1: at baseball games since then in Major League Baseball seems

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Speaker 1: to be encouraging UH encouraging teams to do that. If

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Speaker 1: they do, is that going to cut back on their

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Speaker 1: ability to claim that the zone of danger is as

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Speaker 1: big as it is now? It's a it's a good question.

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Speaker 1: Courts may look at that and fashion a new rule

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Speaker 1: requiring UH Baseball teams to provide more safety. Um and

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Speaker 1: and in fact, it would probably you would imagine that

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Speaker 1: it would also reduce the number of claims, right because

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Speaker 1: there will be more people that are covered by netting

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Speaker 1: and fewer people in the zone of danger. The Yankees

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Speaker 1: have said that they planned to next year significantly expand

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Speaker 1: the netting. They haven't said exactly how far they're going

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Speaker 1: to take it, but but that would put them in

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Speaker 1: with about a third of the Major League teams that

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Speaker 1: have extended their netting to the to the end of

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Speaker 1: the dugouts, down the foul lines on each side. Um

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Speaker 1: And you know, anyone who's seen the video from that

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Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium incident knows that you know that that was

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Speaker 1: pretty awful to watch and that you know, regardless of

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Speaker 1: the desire to catch pop up, certainly nobody wants to

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Speaker 1: be in the way of that kind of a foul ball, Bob.

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Speaker 1: In one of your earlier stories about as you said

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Speaker 1: that left On said is that many fans object to

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Speaker 1: the net because it compromises the view from some of

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Speaker 1: the best and most expensive seats in the stadium. Is

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Speaker 1: that still true they do? Some fans, uh agree with

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Speaker 1: the baseball rules. Some fans say, look, that's part of

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Speaker 1: the game, and uh, you know, your desire desire to

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Speaker 1: be to be shielded from that should impinge on on

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Speaker 1: their desire, you know, to feel more part of the game,

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Speaker 1: to be close to the game, to catch a pop up,

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Speaker 1: um to to have an unobstructed view, and that you know,

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Speaker 1: if you've got a small kid with you, or if

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Speaker 1: you don't want to be in the line of us

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Speaker 1: out ball, well you know, get seats that are further back,

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Speaker 1: or get seats someplace else, get seats behind the plate, Bob.

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Speaker 1: Beyond the the this baseball rule, you know, your tickets

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Speaker 1: to a game say that basically you waive any ability

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Speaker 1: to sue over getting hit by a bat, a ball,

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Speaker 1: anything like that and basically say you're assuming the risk.

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Speaker 1: Are those things? Are those statements on the tickets you

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Speaker 1: buy enforceable? It's a really good question. Everybody has kind

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Speaker 1: of seen that, Um that that's sort of more a warning, like, uh,

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Speaker 1: there are a couple of ballparks that I've been to

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Speaker 1: that have signs let's they watch out for foul balls.

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Speaker 1: I think the warning on in the back of the

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Speaker 1: ticket is more too, sort of just warn you that

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Speaker 1: that that there are you know, balls are going to

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Speaker 1: the stands, that that's are going to the stands, rather

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Speaker 1: than sort of any kind of enforceable contract you know

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Speaker 1: that that would keep you from sewing. Well, our thanks

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Speaker 1: to Bob and Bob and Voris Bloomberg News legal reporter,

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Speaker 1: for being here to explain the century old baseball rule.

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Speaker 1: Well that's it for this edition of Bloomberg Law. We're

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Speaker 1: going to be back tomorrow thanks to our technical director

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Speaker 1: Chris Trachoma and our producer David Sucherman. You can find

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Speaker 1: more legal news at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: BNA dot com, plus an invaluable website for the legal

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Speaker 1: community at Big Law Business dot com. Coming up on

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio, you'll be hearing Bloomberg Markets with Carol Masser

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