| garland823 |
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http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/may/17/tdmet01-unregistered-runner-sues-richmond-mud-run--ar-1920375/ A man who ran the Filthy 5K Mud Run in 2010 and wound up partially paralyzed when he landed awkwardly in a man-made mud pit near the finish line on Brown's Island along the Richmond riverfront has sued the race organizers for $30 million. The suit filed by Robert A. Fecteau II in Richmond Circuit Court said the shallow mud pit, a 30-foot-long obstacle that requires competitors to crawl through it within sight of the end of the course, was created with "negligence, reckless disregard, and/or gross negligence" and was a direct cause of his injuries. The suit said Fecteau, a veteran runner whose accomplishments in the months before the Filthy 5K included finishing the 26.2-mile Marine Corps Marathon in October 2008, was in a "fatigued, weakened, exhausted" state as he approached the end of the 3.1-mile Richmond race on May 14, 2010. The suit said he jammed his hands and arms as he went down to crawl through the pit, "thereby causing damage to his spinal cord, paralysis, and permanent injuries to his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae." Richmond attorney John C. Shea said the accident left his client partially paralyzed from the chest down, with minimal use of his arms. "He is not ventilator-dependent," Shea said. "He is able to breathe on his own." Fecteau's suit, originally filed in Arlington County but pulled and refiled in Richmond last week, named as defendants the Richmond Sports Backers as well as Venture Richmond Inc. and the Road Runners Club of America Inc., which helped in presenting the race. Individual defendants are Jon Lugbill, the executive director of the Sports Backers, and John A. Raigins, event operations manager for the group, which stages the race each spring as part of its Riverrock outdoors festival along the James River downtown. Fecteau seeks a jury trial and $30 million in damages. He also wants the defendants to pay his legal costs. Stanley P. Wellman, the Henrico County attorney representing all of the defendants, said the suit lacks merit. "The plaintiff himself described this as a freak accident," Wellman said. "Jon and the Sports Backers have a long, proud history of conducting events safely. The Sports Backers takes the safety of the participants of its races very seriously." Fecteau, a resident of the Prince William County community of Triangle, is a trained medical technologist who can no longer work, Shea said. When he competed in the Mud Run, he used the race number of a friend, Aubrey Anthony. She had filled out the race registration paperwork, which includes a liability waiver that is standard for competitors in road races, and paid the race fee but was unable to run. She gave her bib to Fecteau. Fecteau's suit acknowledged that he never filled out the registration paperwork. The suit also said he asked race officials if he needed to re-register as himself but was told he did not. Wellman said his clients dispute that allegation. "That's absolutely false and not supported by any evidence," he said. Shea said that even if Fecteau had signed a form absolving the race organizers of liability, such a waiver would not stand up in Virginia courts. "It's our position that those waivers are not effective," he said. "You can't waive away your responsibility." Results from the 2010 Filthy 5K indicate there were 1,294 finishers in an event that took competitors over a course featuring unpaved pathways on Belle Isle and Brown's Island, as well as paved areas along the north bank of the James River. The course had three mud pits, including the one at the end. Authorities said no other injuries were reported at any of the pits. The 2011 race had mud pits as well, and that will again be the case at this year's event, scheduled for Friday evening as part of the Riverrock festivities. Wellman challenged the allegation in the suit that the mud pit where Fecteau was injured had been created in a negligent manner. "Upwards of 1,500 runners have gone into that mud pit in each of the years the race has been staged," he said, "and all of them have come out unscathed save for one." In addition to finishing the Marine Corps Marathon in the fall of 2008, Fecteau completed several 5K races in 2009, including one in April of that year in Alexandria where he averaged 9:49 per mile, placing him among the top finishers in the men's 50-54 age group. "He was an active, fit guy, which makes it more tragic for him," Shea said. |
| garland823 |
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My favorite part is his lawyer calls him fit because he ran a 5k at 9:49 pace. |
| Plagerizing Willy |
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Well, consider the majority of the population. Sub 10 pace is actually rather fast for Americans. Craziest part is that he bandited the race... Seems to me that since he was not signed up, the law should favor the race directors. I feel really bad for this guy, though and think mud runs are kind of stupid. |
| Mr. Obvious |
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I predict that he will lose this suit. Unless the organizers pay him a settlement to go away, which they might based on some peculiarities in Virginia law. One important factor in Virginia courts (not usually true elsewhere) is that Virginia courts have ruled that waivers for these types of activities are not legal if they waive negligence. In most states the courts will allow you to waive ordinary negligence but not gross negligence (as that is against public policy). The result is that the Virginia case is much more likely to withstand a motion for dismissal or Sumary Judgement based on the waiver. NOTE: participants are still able to accept the dangers inherent in the activity and are expected to do so whether or not they sign a waiver. It sounds like this was a danger inherent to the activity. However that will all have to be decided based on testimony and evidence on how the pit was designed and whether there is some sort of industry standard for pits of this type (I have no idea if there is or isn't). |
| garland823 |
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Well, consider the majority of the population. Sub 10 pace is actually rather fast for Americans. Craziest part is that he bandited the race... Seems to me that since he was not signed up, the law should favor the race directors. I feel really bad for this guy, though and think mud runs are kind of stupid.[/quote] He was active, not fit. And I do sympathize for him, that sucks. Probably what happened is he couldn't work and had very little avenue for money and some plaintiff's attorney saw a bunch of dollar signs. |
| Mr. Obvious |
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I feel much more sympathy for the defendant than I do for the plaintiff. They have the threat of a multi-million dollar judgement over their heads and are out an enormous amount of time, money, and stress. What happened to this guy sucked, but from what I can tell of the case it was an accident. Accidents happen, people get hurt, that doesn't mean somebody else is responsible fo ryou. He choose to take part in an activity with a risk of injury. |
| FanTam |
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You don't know that. I know plenty of fit-as-hell people who cannot run fast at all. Ever seen a CrossFit box? |
| Old Man Runner |
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The guy was an illegal participant in the race, bottom line. This case should be tossed based upon that fact alone. Anything else in the case is irrelevant, honestly. Who cares if he ran Marine Corps Marathon (a quick check says he finished in over 5 hours) or had run other 5k's. |
| hks321 |
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One important factor in Virginia courts (not usually true elsewhere) is that Virginia courts have ruled that waivers for these types of activities are not legal if they waive negligence. In most states the courts will allow you to waive ordinary negligence but not gross negligence (as that is against public policy)." I think he waived the liability of the organizers. Everyone else climbed out of the 3 mud holes without any injury. Shit happens in life. Such a fit 30min-5K athletic should only have himself to sue. |
| joho |
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I feel much more sympathy for the defendant than I do for the plaintiff. They have the threat of a multi-million dollar judgement over their heads and are out an enormous amount of time, money, and stress. What happened to this guy sucked, but from what I can tell of the case it was an accident. Accidents happen, people get hurt, that doesn't mean somebody else is responsible fo ryou. He choose to take part in an activity with a risk of injury.[/quote] Hopefully the defendents have good insurance. If this guys wins the case I wonder if it will change or slow down the amount of these mud runs you see across the nation. They are getting very popular. In most cases I don't believe in accidents. Usually someone is at fault. But this does seem to be an accident. It sounds like he fell (or dove perhaps?), into the mud and it was not as deep as expected? Either way, just an accident or his fault. Can't reallly blame the organizers for that. |
| belter |
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What?? I'm not denying this happened, but how did he do this? "he jammed his hands and arms as he went down to crawl through the pit, "thereby causing damage to his spinal cord, paralysis, and permanent injuries to his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae." |
| Old Man Runner |
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Lets all go back to the fact that HE WAS AN UN-REGISTERED PARTICIPANT. He didn't sign a waiver. So technically he didn't "run" anything at all. He should be arrested for trespassing. |
| giving it away |
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I hope they had printed somewhere that you may not transfer your race number to anyone else. If they did - then they need to go after the person who gave the plaintiff the number and also the plaintiff for accepting a race number illegally. |
| asdfasdf |
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Doesn't CrossFit go for well rounded? If you can't run a 30 minute 5k, you're not well rounded athletically. Not everyone needs to be able to run a 14:00 or even a 20:00 5k, but 9:49 pace is slow. Saying someone is fit because he can run a 5k at 9:49 pace is like saying someone is strong because he can squat 135 pounds. This sounds like a freak accident, or a mistold story - he dropped from a standing position to his hands and broke his spine in the process? I've caught myself from falling that way a whole bunch of times, on purpose or by accident, and I don't know how you'd break your back in the process unless he was diving headfirst down a steep hill. |
| bangalangadanga |
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here. i'll win the case for the defendant. the event purchases insurance for this sort of thing. people subsidize that purchase with entry fees. this guy did not buy insurance for the event. this guy has no claim to any insurance funded by the participants and the mud run organization. sorry. buy insurance next time. |
| jhrjtyg |
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I'm speaking as a clueless 20 something here with zero legal experience, but isn't this whole case hinging on the negligence of the mud pit? The plaintiff isn't saying "they shouldn't have let me run", they're saying "that pit was built in an unsafe manner". If the pit was unsafe but he was there illegally, there would still be a problem. Like someone else said, it will be very interesting to see the effect this had on other runs like this. Either way, I think you've gotta feel bad for both sides. This is a guy who obviously was pretty active and enjoyed these sorts of things and now he can't do that anymore or even work. Say what you will about the merits of his case, but at the end of the day he's a guy who can't run any more. Then you have the race organizers who, worst case scenario, will be out million of dollars. Even if they are found to not be at fault it's still an expensive and stressful situation to be in. |
| garland823 |
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Doesn't CrossFit go for well rounded? If you can't run a 30 minute 5k, you're not well rounded athletically. Not everyone needs to be able to run a 14:00 or even a 20:00 5k, but 9:49 pace is slow. Saying someone is fit because he can run a 5k at 9:49 pace is like saying someone is strong because he can squat 135 pounds. This sounds like a freak accident, or a mistold story - he dropped from a standing position to his hands and broke his spine in the process? I've caught myself from falling that way a whole bunch of times, on purpose or by accident, and I don't know how you'd break your back in the process unless he was diving headfirst down a steep hill.[/quote] Agreed. I can't believe people on Letsrun are disagreeing with that statement. Regardless, it's absurd that this clown is using a 30 minute 5k to give him athletic credibility. |
| mudfun |
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How does one go about creating a mudpit with "negligence, reckless disregard, and/or gross negligence"? I would like to know how they have determined this. |
| Mr. Obvious |
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Under Virginia law: Simple negligence is the failure to use ordinary care. Gross negligence is action which shows indifference to others, disregarding prudence to the level that the safety of others is completely neglected. Willful and wanton negligence is acting consciously in disregard of another person’s rights or acting with reckless indifference to the consequences, with the defendant aware, from his knowledge of existing circumstances and conditions, that his conduct would probably cause injury to another. That is case law. In practice a test commonly applied is whether the pit was built to industry standards--which is why I asked if there was a common standard for mud runs, warrior runs, spartan race, etc. Could be relevant in this case. |
| Mr. Obvious |
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Right, this would certainly be one factor considered by the court, whether the construction of the mud pit was such that it was likely or nearly certain that injuries would occur or whether it is just a possibility due to the nature of the event. |