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Court Lets $850,000 Verdict Against Baseball Bat Maker Stand

By Bruce Carton

On Friday, a Montana state judge refused to throw out a recent jury verdict that found the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats was liable in the amount of $850,000 for the 2003 death of a baseball player during a game in Helena. In October, the jury found that Hillerich & Bradsby Co. failed to provide adequate warning as to the dangers of the bat, and that this failure caused the accident that killed 18-year-old pitcher Brandon Patch. Curiously, however, the jury also found that the bat was not defective in any way. Ruling against the bat company on its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the Associated Press reports (via Bad Lawyer) that the court found that "in this case the jury may properly have inferred from the evidence that a warning would have been heeded and the failure to warn caused the injury." The bat company had argued that the law required the plaintiffs to produce evidence that had a warning been given, it would have caused Patch to take precautions to avoid injury. They argued that Patch's family had failed to prove this, but the court disagreed. While pitching in an American Legion game, Patch was struck...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).