Minor Child Injures Self While Performing Gymnastics Resulting in Large Settlement

Author: Attorney Daniel Villalobos

Our Client Fractures Leg Doing Gymnastics

Our client, an 8 year old child, was practicing gymnastics as she had done for a long time. This particular instance our client was instructed to practice doing flips. In order to do this she was instructed to jump and do a flip and land in a pen that was full of foam to help with the landing. She did her flip perfectly and landed in the pen full of foam. As she was exiting the pen, suddenly and without warning another child jumped, did her flip, and landed on top of our client causing severe injuries to her right leg.

Our Client Undergoes Surgery

After the incident, our client was rushed to the hospital. The treating physician diagnosed her with a broken femur. The doctor performed surgery to repair the fracture and put our client in a hard cast. Our client underwent rehabilitation for several weeks after the accident and after the hard cast was removed.

Dell and Schaefer Negotiate A Settlement

Our client’s father hired our firm to represent his minor daughter for her injuries. Normally the procedure for personal injury cases involves writing a simple demand letter that outlines the theory of liability and demands a settlement. Negotiations will ensue and a settlement is reached without the need to file a lawsuit. In the event that a settlement could not be reached, a lawsuit may be filed. However in this case, our firm did not want to waste time with a demand letter. We felt that an injury of this magnitude needed to go to court immediately. Within a matter of days of being hired by our client’s father, our firm quickly filed a lawsuit against the gymnastics company. Our firm sought monetary damages for bodily injury, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, disfigurement, disability, mental anguish, past and future medical expenses, and future lost wages. Our theory of liability was simple: Our firm argued that the gymnastics company was liable under General Negligence and Negligent Supervision. Specifically we argued that the agents of the gymnastics company failed to properly supervise the children by allowing a second child to jump into the pen while our client was still inside the pen. We argued that any reasonable person would have made sure that the pen was empty before allowing another child to jump in. The insurance company immediately agreed with our position at mediation and offered our client a very large settlement. Due to the confidentiality clause our firm cannot disclose the amount of the settlement, nor the name of the gymnastics company. However our client was absolutely thrilled that our firm aggressively pursued this case and did not waste time with a demand letter.

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