Legal Brief # 1
Coomer v. Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp., 2014 Mo. LEXIS 154
Plaintiff v. Defendant
Case No. SC 93214
Parties: (Plaintiff)
John Coomer
Defendant
Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp
Statement of Issues: Coomer charges for fault and damage caused by slugger against the
Kansas City Royals Baseball company.
Arguments of the Plaintiff: The decision whether to have a hot dog at the Royals
Stadium is an inherent risk of participating in a sports event was argued by Coomer that it is up
to the judge instead of the jury.
Arguments of the Defendant: The main argument of the Royals was that Sluggerrr had
decided to throw a hot dog which injured Coomer. It had to be decided by the jury. They also
argued that the ruling should be affirmed, because otherwise the injury could be completely
eliminated from the risk.
Holding of the Court: The Court considers that enough evidence has been used to justify
the comparative injury defect of Coomer. This cannot be negligence, Coomer argues, because
he's "sitting there." The wound may lead to this conclusion and Coomer cannot therefore be
attributed to a percentage of the fault. But this is not the only conclusion supported by this
evidence. Evidence also sufficed that Coomer was unreasonable when he saw Slugger enter his
leonine wind-up in preparation for a hot backdog and then selected the specific time at which
Sluggerrr released his hot dog to watch him go somewhere else. Among other things, the injury
could conclude that this lack of careful attention was sufficient to assess some of Coomer's
faults.
Rationale: "Sluggerrr could make breaks more fun, yet Coomer with his 12,000
spectators did not watch the royals play baseball with Sluggerrr's rain soaked friends." It was
decided by the court that Hot Dogs of Sluggerrr didn't become an integral part of baseball. As
Sluggerrr (and the Royals) weren't part of the game, viewers had to look after the hot dog
Launch in a good manner. The jury should not have been asked to decide whether a hot dog is an
inherent risk to watch games from the Royals; Coomer has a second chance to prove his case in
the Court.
