25 A.D.2d 871 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1966
In a negligence action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff while playing basketball in a school building owned hy defendant Central School District No. 1 of the Town of Ramapo, said defendant appeals from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Rockland County, entered October 9, 1964, as is in favor of plaintiff against it, upon a jury verdiet. Judgment affirmed, insofar as appealed from, with costs. Plaintiff was injured while participating in a game of basketball in the gymnasium in the Sloatsburg Elementary School building, which was owned and controlled by appellant, a school district. At the time of the accident plaintiff was 30 years old and the building was being used as a community recreation center. The Sloatsburg Recreation Commission, which had been established hy the Board of Trustees of the Village of Sloatsburg, was empowered to provide, conduct, sponsor and supervise recreational and athletic activities for the residents of Sloatsburg. One of the projects sponsored and conducted by the commission was “basketball for adults” and, at the time of the accident, the commission, with appellant’s express approval and permission, had engaged the gymnasium for the playing of basketball. The combination cafeteria, assembly and gymnasium, where the basketball game was being played, had a stage at one end and a wall in which there were two doors at the other end. The wall was four feet, three inches from the backboard to which the basket was attached and approximately two feet from the “ end line ” of the court. Each of the doors had an 8 inch by 12 inch glass panel which was constructed of one-eighth ineh double-thick window sheet glass. One of the doors was almost directly behind the basket. Plaintiff, while running along the court at considerable speed and “ going up ” for a shot at the basket, was carried by his momentum beyond the “ end line ” and into the door behind the basket, causing his arm, with which he tried to brace his body, to go through the pane of glass. The gravamen of plaintiff’s complaint is that the basketball court was improperly constructed and designed “so that the wall of the gymnasium was dangerously close to one end of the basketball court and to the backboard at that end” and that a “glass window in the door immediately behind and too close to said backboard ” was “ constructed and maintained ” by appellant without any warning that the “glass in said window was ordinary glass, not shatterproof, and not reinforced”. After a jury trial, a verdiet was returned in plaintiff’s favor against appellant in the sum of $15,000 and in favor of the codefendant, the Village of Sloatsburg, against plaintiff. No appeal has been taken by plaintiff. Appellant contends that (1) plaintiff was a licensee and not an invitee and cannot recover for the alleged defect in design or for the condition of the premises, (2) plaintiff assumed the risk of injury.by playing basketball with full knowledge of the danger and (3) the evidence failed to establish any negligence on appellant’s part. In New York, the liability of school districts or school hoards is determined by the same rules and principles which govern the liability of private landowners, under the same or similar circumstances, for their own negligence resulting in injuries to pupils or other persons. Moreover, the measure of the duty of care required of appellant is dependent upon the status of plaintiff as an invitee, licensee or trespasser (Seitz v. Board of Educ., 284 App. Div. 1022). In our opinion, the status of plaintiff was that of an invitee to whom appellant owed the duty of reasonable care. Appellant had granted permission to the Sloatsburg Recreation Commission to use the school premises for basketball games sponsored by the commission and had invited the members of the public (including plaintiff)
One who takes part in a sport accepts the risks that inhere in it so far as they are obvious and necessary (Kimbar v. Estis, 1 N Y 2d 399, 404; Murphy v. Steeplechase Amusement Co., 250 N. Y. 479, 482; Luftig v. Steinhorn, 21 A D 2d 760, affd. 16 N Y 2d 568; Speigel v. Jewish Community Center, 24 A D 2d 926). Basketball is a sport which requires those who participate in it to race at maximum speed toward the basket and it is a rare game indeed when players so doing are not carried by their momentum beyond the limits of the court. The ideal basketball court, therefore, should contain a considerable area beyond the end lines free from obstruction. Experience teaches, however, that players will and do voluntarily risk the hazards of an inadequate playing area in exchange for the opportunity to participate in the sport (Scala v. City of New York, 200 Misc. 475, 479). In the instant ease plaintiff, a 30-year-old accountant, was injured while participating in a basketball game at the Sloatsburg Elementary School. He had played in the gymnasium on at least seven prior occasions. After intercepting a pass, he raced for his team’s basket at top speed, jumped up toward- the basket to shoot the ball and was unable to stop himself from hitting the back wall which was two feet from the end line of the court. His arm went through an 8 inch by 12 inch glass panel contained in a door in the wall. He testified that as he took the shot he thought he was going to hit the -wall which included the door but that he was not aware of the glass in the door. In my opinion, plaintiff as a matter of law knowingly and voluntarily assumed the risk of injury resulting from the dangerous proximity of the wall to the end line. In two very similar eases, this court has affirmed judgments for defendants on that theory (Scampoli v. City of Mount Vernon, 24 A D 2d 503; Maltz v. Board of Educ., 32 Misc 2d 492, affd. 282 App. Div. 888). Where one voluntarily assumes a position of danger, he may not recover for injuries resulting from such danger (Quist v. Bressard Distrs., 24 A D 2d 420). Whether “a party has assumed a given risk is generally a question of fact but in a- proper ease it can be decided as a- matter of law' (cf. Kanofsky v. Brooklyn Jewish Center, 241 App. Div. 739, affd. 265 N. Y. 634; Lutzker v. Board of Educ., 262 App. Div. 881, affd. 287 N. Y. 822; Grossgold v. Brooklyn Jewish Center, 279 App. Div. 1025; McGee v. Board of Educ., 16 A D 2d 99, 102). I think this is such a case (cf. Koffman v. Gilbert, 24 A D 2d 493). I am also of the opinion that there was a failure of proof as to appellant’s alleged negligence in failing to install safety or shatterproof glass. The architect who designed this combination assembly room, cafeteria and gymnasium for use by children ranging in age from 6 to 12 testified that'he had specified double-thick window glass for the doors because he did not know it was contemplated that the room would be used as a basketball court; that, though he was later so notified and backboards were installed when the building' was almost completed, he did not think it necessary for any changes to be made in the glass panels; and. 'that, in the fifteen years between completion "of the'school in 1943 and this accident