Here's how the lawsuit ended:
Robert Fecteau, who was severely injured in the May 2010 Filthy 5K Mud Run in Richmond VA, has settled his lawsuit against the Run's organizers for $300,000.00. Most of those dollars will be paid to medical care providers. It's not clear how much will be paid to Fecteau.
Fecteau is married and has two children. He is an Army veteran.
Fecteau, who had run in other races, did not register for the Run. Instead, he used a friend's bib. He claimed he asked a (never identified) Run volunteer if he needed to register in his own name and was told it was unnecessary. The Run website expressly forbade the transfer of registrations.
Every Run registrant acknowledged that the Run was a potentially hazardous activity and assumed all risks and waived any claims arising out of participation in the event. The safety instructions on the website warned participants not to dive head first into the mud pits.
The Run had three mud pits, each 6" to 12" deep. When he came to the third pit (which was identical to the first two), Fecteau went in head first. He claimed it was a "slip-and-slide" motion. Witnesses (confirmed by a video) described his entry into the pit as like "diving into a swimming pool."
Fecteau's hands hit the tarp liner at the bottom of the pit, his arms collapsed, and his chin/head struck the bottom, causing a cervical spine fracture.
The fracture caused damage to his spinal cord, paralysis, and permanent injuries to his neck. He was left with no feeling or movement in his legs and severely decreased movement in his arms and hands. He is able to breathe on his own and is able to drive.
At the time of the settlement, Fecteau had medical bills in excess of $977,000.00 and estimated future medical bills of $8.5 million.
Fecteau sued the race organizers for $30 million. He claimed the organizers were grossly negligent in the way they designed, constructed, and supervised the Run. He claimed the organizers failed to adequately warn about the dangers of entering the mud pits hands and head first and should have prohibited racers from entering the obstacles head first altogether.
The organizers responded that they had not been negligent (none of the other 1,294 finishers were injured in any of the mud pits), that Fecteau should have known it was dangerous to dive head first into the pit, that (because he had not registered for the Run)Fecteau was a trespasser - which reduced their standard of care, and that Virginia's charitable organization immunity law barred any recovery.
The case settled one month before the hearing on the organizers' motions to dismiss the lawsuit. Fecteau's lawyers did not receive any of the settlement funds and were not reimbursed for over $100,000.00 in expenses.
This information comes from: (1)an August 9, 2013, on-line article in the Richmond Times; (2) an August 5, 2013, article (by the plaintiff's lawyer) in Virginia Lawyers Weekly; and (3) an August 12, 2013, article (by the defendants' lawyer) in Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
Read more:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=5629487&thread=5629487#5629487#ixzz2thFyLZld