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Leav & Steinberg successfully resolves a case for a 10 year old boy injured while playing football

During the summer of 2013 our client, a 10 year old boy from New Jersey was injured while playing football at a field located in Manhattan. The game was organized by youth football league and held at a field owned by the City of New York.  During the course of the game our client sustained a fractured wrist after being tackled and landing on the base of a soccer goal.  Unfortunately, when the field was set up for the football game a soccer goal was placed on the side of the field causing an increased risk to the players.

Since this case involved at least one municipal defendant we were required under New York Law to file a Notice of Claim against the City of New York within 90 days. After the Notice of Claim was filed the City of New York is given the opportunity to conduct what is called a 50-h hearing to determine the facts surrounding the accident.  Once the 50-h hearing was held we then filed a lawsuit naming both the City of New York and the private youth football league as defendants.

Both defendants tried to argue that that there was no liability against their respective clients since our client “assumed the risk” of injury by paying football, which is an inherently dangerous game.  Alexander Kran, III of Leav & Steinberg successfully argued that this was not an “assumption of  risk” case since the defendants had increased the risk of injury to our client by placing the metal soccer goal next to the field where our client was playing football.  Therefore, it is important to always protect your legal rights and consult with one of the attorneys at Leav & Steinberg so that we can examine the facts and circumstances and provide you with our legal advice.