Pate v. Skate Country, Inc.

682 So. 2d 288, 96 La.App. 4 Cir. 0364, 1996 La. App. LEXIS 2266, 1996 WL 583356
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 9, 1996
DocketNo. 96-CA-0364
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 682 So. 2d 288 (Pate v. Skate Country, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pate v. Skate Country, Inc., 682 So. 2d 288, 96 La.App. 4 Cir. 0364, 1996 La. App. LEXIS 2266, 1996 WL 583356 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

| iLANDRIEU, Judge.

This is an appeal by Skate Country, Inc., Chef Menteur Skate Center, Inc., and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) of a trial court judgment, following a [289]*289jury verdict, in favor of Patti Pate for injuries she sustained when she fell and broke her hip at Skate Country Roller Rink on June 30,1989. The judgment in Pate’s favor was for $200,000.00, subject to a credit of $100,000.00 for 50% comparative fault apportioned to Pate, plus costs and interest from the date of judicial demand.

At the time she was injured, Pate was a summer camp counselor for the Archdiocese of New Orleans’s Witness program. She and the other counselors had taken the campers, ages 5-12, on a field trip to the roller rink. At the rink, Pate skated across the floor to supervise and/or reprimand some of the older children who were opening the emergency exit door. As she proceeded across the rink, Pate saw an apparently frightened young girl, who was among Pate’s group of campers, on the ground and unable to get up because of others skating around her. After confronting the children near the exit, Pate saw the young girl still on the floor. Having seen no rink employees or “floorguards”, Pate approached the|2girl to help, but as she did so, the girl reached out her hand on the floor. Pate swerved to miss skating over the girl’s hand, and consequently, she slid into the concrete wall just past the fallen camper and broke her hip.

Pate was brought to Pendelton Methodist Hospital by ambulance, where she underwent hip reduction surgery. The surgeon placed a metal plate and screws inside her hip to aid in healing. Two years later, the surgeon removed the screws but was unable to remove the metal plate. Pate has a long scar on her leg and residual pain and discomfort.

At trial, Pate presented the testimony of Coach Samuel Holden, another counselor at the skating rink who said that it was his understanding that there would be rink employees available to assist skaters, yet he was with Pate after her fall for ten or fifteen minutes before someone from the rink came to their aid. He did not see Pate fall or see the camper who had fallen. The only rink employees he had seen earlier were playing video games. Holden testified that Pate now is not the same person she was before the accident.

Pate, who had been a teacher in the Orleans parish school system for 17 years at the time of trial, was 36 years old at the time of this accident. She could skate and had skated before, but she said she was not an expert skater.

Pate testified that after she heard an announcement warning some of the campers about opening the exit door, she decided to check on the situation. She then saw the little girl who was trying to get up, but did not approach her until after she had confronted the children near the exit, satisfying herself that they were not deliberately opening the door. After doing do, Pate then ushered her young son, who had apparently entered the rink to meet her, off of the rink. At this point, Pate testified, she saw the girl still on the floor, crawling and trying to get up. Older children were apparently pushing her away. Pate said that when she | -¡did rush to help the girl, five to ten minutes had passed from the time she had first seen the girl, and she had not seen any floorguards.

Pate testified that she is in constant pain and that her surgery was very hard on her emotionally because while she was in the hospital for ten days, she was separated from her baby who was at home at the time. She said that her scar is a constant reminder of the accident and that she is unable to walk as much as she did before the accident. Although she returned to work approximately three months after her injury, she believes she does not perform her job as well as she did before the accident.

Dr. Kenneth Adatto, an orthopedic surgeon, evaluated Pate once in 1995. He found abnormality and loss of motion in her hip. He attributed her continued limping and back pain to the 1989 injury at the skating rink. Dr. Adatto believed that Pate’s injury probably would not affect her job as a teacher, and he had no recommendations for future surgery. He would expect her to feel changes in the weather, experience back pain and have aching the rest of her life. He believed that Pate was honest about her complaints, all of which he found to be expected.

Dr. Alain Craeco was Pate’s treating physician. He said that Pate suffered a fracture of the femur, and he operated on her to [290]*290stabilize and reduce the fracture. Two years later, he operated to remove the hardware he had placed inside her hip but was unable to remove the plate because of its position. He believes that the weakness in her muscle, causing a slight limp, should correct itself in time. One and a half years before trial, Dr. Cracco found full range of motion in her hip. He assessed a 10% permanent residual impairment to her whole body, but he would not argue with Dr. Adatto’s 25% figure.

Although Dr. Cracco anticipates no future surgery for Pate, he said that the problem with the metal plate staying in her body is that there is an increased riskjjof infection. Dr. Cracco always found Pate to be honest, and he believed that she went back to work faster than most people. For future medical expenses, Dr. Cracco feels that Pate will require one doctor visit each year.

Donald Maginnis, an architect, twice visited the roller rink where Pate was injured. He found that the wall around the rink was made of 8 inch concrete block or cinder block. The wall had a 6 inch high baseboard encircling the rink which was made of one-half inch plywood covered with carpeting. The 1981 Roller Skating Rink Safety Standards1 were introduced into evidence, and Maginnis testified that it appeared to him that the rink he visited utilized some of the safety standards. He believed, however, that six foot high carpeting or other padding on the walls would have presented less of a risk of injury than the solid concrete block wall which existed.

In this appeal, defendants first assign error to the jury’s finding that the lack of rink employees on the skating rink floor was a cause-in-fact of Pate’s injury.

It is well settled that the operator of an amusement facility is not an insurer of the safety of the patrons but is liable for injuries sustained by them only if the operator is guilty of negligence. A participant in a sport assumes the ordinary risks attendant upon such participation. Heard v. Bonnie and Clyde’s of Hattiesburg, Inc., 501 So.2d 1003 (La.App. 2nd Cir.), writ denied, 503 So.2d 481 (La.1987); Dobard v. Skate Country, Inc., 451 So.2d 1231 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1984).

The defendants argue that the number of floor guards working at the time of the accident is inconsequential because the accident happened so quickly and Igwith no forewarning that a floorguard could not have prevented it. This argument, however, misses the point because it was Pate’s position that if a floorguard had assisted the young camper who was having trouble, Pate would not have had to go to her aid.

The record does not indicate how many, if any, floorguards were in the rink around the time of Pate’s injury.

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682 So. 2d 288, 96 La.App. 4 Cir. 0364, 1996 La. App. LEXIS 2266, 1996 WL 583356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pate-v-skate-country-inc-lactapp-1996.