Senators Schneider and Head have authored SB 415
which seeks to limit liability to schools for injuries sustained by physical fitness participants in school physical fitness activities, defined as an activity where the general public is invited to use school property, school equipment, or a school facility to participate in a physical fitness activity, including participation in sports, weightlifting, running, swimming, diving, bicycling, or any other similar activity, whether or not the member of the public pays to participate in the activity.
The bill has certain signage requirements, warning of the inherent risks of physical fitness activity. However, it doesn’t limit liability where a school knows or should know of a dangerous physical condition of the property (presumably where the dangerous condition causes the injury, though, I’m not sure the legislation states that specifically). It also doesn’t limit liability against an allegation that the school failed to properly train an employee on how to conduct the physical fitness activity.
With the exemptions concerning failure to train and negligence standard on the physical conditions, I’m not sure the limitation on liability will do much. Every injury from a physical fitness activity will magically be caused by failure to train or negligence about the physical conditions when it comes time for litigation. The appellate courts will say, “send it to the jury to figure out.” The juries either won’t understand the fine distinctions or won’t care when presented with a sympathetic plaintiff. Or, at least, this will be the fear of defendants who will go ahead and settle the cases without wanting to take a chance that the jury will understand and accurately apply this kind of law.
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