Family sues baseball bat company after son dies in game

[FNH]

Montana jury awards $850,000 in aluminum bat lawsuit

Pitcher takes a line drive to the face and dies a few hours later. High school baseball teams use aluminum bats for economical use. The family and others say that aluminum bats make a hit fly faster and harder. Family was awarded the suit because the bat company "failed to warn of the dangers of the product". Dumb. Tragedy the kid died but to sue the bat company was unnecessary.

The Associated Press
Originally published: October 29. 2009 3:01AM
Last modified: October 28. 2009 11:41PM

HELENA, Mont. — A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game.

The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game in Helena in 2003.

The Lewis and Clark County District Court jury awarded a total of $850,000 in damages against Louisville, Ky.,-based Hillerich & Bradsby for failure to place warnings on the product.

The teen’s mother, Debbie Patch, was stunned by the verdict. The family rejoiced and cried as the verdict was read.

“We never expected it,” she said. “We just hoped we could get the truth out for more people to see.”

Patch said she hopes the decision will make more people aware of the dangers associated with aluminum bats and that more youth leagues will switch to using wooden bats.

“We just want to save someone else’s life,” Patch said.

Attorneys for Hillerich & Bradsby declined to comment. They had argued that accidents are bound to happen in baseball games and there’s nothing inherently unsafe about aluminum baseball bats.

A spokesman for the legendary bat-maker said Wednesday the company did nothing wrong and the verdict “appears to be an indictment of the entire sport of baseball.”

“We made a bat in accordance with the rules,” Rick Redman said. “That bat was approved for play by baseball’s organizing and governing organizations.”

Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association’s Don’t Take My Bat Away Program, a sporting goods trade group, said that while Patch’s death is tragic, the exact same thing could have happened with a wooden bat.

Curt Drake, one of the family’s attorneys, said the jury arrived at the total by awarding $792,000 to Brandon Patch for his lost earnings and pain and suffering, an amount that goes to his estate. The family was awarded $58,000 for their pain and suffering and damages.

Judge Kathy Seeley is still considering punitive damages in the case.

In the verdict Wednesday, the jury also decided the product was not defective. Drake said that decision was not significant, since the jury found it posed a threat without an adequate warning label.

The attorney said the family’s victory will not likely change the way aluminum bats are used, but that it could help give momentum to efforts calling for a switch to wood bats in youth baseball.

Metal bats came into vogue in amateur sports in the 1970s, but professional baseball still uses wood bats. Some amateur teams have decided to switch in recent years, in part due to Patch’s death.

“We should go back to the way baseball is supposed to be played, the way professional baseball is played,” said Debbie Patch.

Brandon Patch was pitching for the Miles City Mavericks when the ball ricocheted off his head, eventually falling behind first base after traveling as high as 50 feet in the air.

Patch went into convulsions on the field in front of a horrified crowd and died within hours from his injury.

His family’s lawsuit was one of several in recent years involving aluminum bats made by Hillerich & Bradsby.

Last year, the family of a New Jersey boy who suffered brain damage after he was struck by a line drive off an aluminum Louisville Slugger bat sued the company and others, saying they should have known it was dangerous. Steven Domalewski was 12 when he was struck by the ball in 2006. His family’s suit is pending in New Jersey Superior Court.

In 2002, the parents of teenage pitcher Jeremy Brett of Enid, Okla., won a jury verdict against Hillerich & Bradsby and were awarded damages. The couple filed suit after Brett was hit in the head with a ball hit off an aluminum bat made by the company, suffering severe head injuries.

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[Amastacia]

Three cheers for our litigious culture.

We need less bullshit judges and juries willing to award victories to plaintiffs who have total bullshit suits. Nothing the bat company did caused the boy's death. He chose to engage in a sport, and that carries risks.

[Kuya]

That's a pretty shitty way to lose your kid.

[Moochi]

only in america!

[Khamsin]

For a moment, I thought this was the son of the mother who died in the Wii contest.

[Sol-Blackguy]

http://imagebeast.net/images/64duqsgai6fchip1l2c.jpg

[Ramor]

iirc, we all signed legal releases to play sports in high school no? i mean i suppose that protects the high school but ffs people, you can't sue everyone for no goddamn reason

lawsuits are in general bullshit nowadays, and fuck juries that allow this shit they're just as fucking retarded as the people suing

[Sanoske]

“We just hoped we could get the truth out for more people to see.”

Patch said she hopes the decision will make more people aware of the dangers associated with aluminum bats and that more youth leagues will switch to using wooden bats.

“We just want to save someone else’s life,” Patch said.

Right. I love how people like to act as if getting an $850,000 check isn't the main reason behind such a lawsuit.

[Jakson]

Nerf bats and balls would surely cure the dangers.

[Absolutely Virtue]

If we can find the guy who can hit the ball hard enough to kill a kid, the Nationals need a middle infielder...

[Airenn]

^Lol

[Ratatapa]

USA where we will sue you for anything possible

[Absolutely Virtue]

USA where we will bomb people from Montreal Quebec for anything possible

ftfy, watch your mouth

[Ratatapa]

my point stand, USA really does sue people for the smallest possible shit


Next thread a man sue a barber because he didn't know that it would cut his beard, and win 200 000$!!

[Seraph]

Batting helmets for the pitchers. Yesssssssssssssss.

[Correction]

my point stand, USA really does sue people for the smallest possible shit


Next thread a man sue a barber because he didn't know that it would cut his beard, and win 200 000$!!

Damn, that barber cut my beard wrong, now I now how those parents of the dead kid feel.

[Ratatapa]

Fine my kid is dead lets sue for nothing

Baseball hurts it's common knowledge they knew the risk, if they didn't want their kid to be hurt well they should've made him do ballet.


If the parents actually think that baseball is a 100% safe and injury/death cannot happen well i fell sad for their mental status

[Ratatapa]

Also look at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1a12...layer_embedded

This could be suable because it's a flaw in the rules and the "hitter" didnt actually stop before hitting.

But the fact that hitting a baseball and it hitted the pitcher is not the same thing, you can aim the ball but it's not on purpose

[Mizango]

This is dumb as fuck. I cant imagine how they feel after losing a kid but holy shit this is stupid. As a former HS baseball player you KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that you could be hit by a pitch or a line drive on the infield at any given time and im sure his parents were well aware of this also.

This is why I hate America sometimes, we sue of every goddamn thing and win.

[MrW]

Every juror should be required to take a competency test before serving.

“We just hoped we could get the truth out for more people to see.”

“We just want to save someone else’s life,”

Guess they have 850,000 reasons to "get the truth out." It sucks the kid died but next time maybe they'll intentionally walk that batter.