Legal Opinions

Court defines responsibility of youth sports' organization

By James C. Kozlowski, J.D.

In the case of Loosier v. Youth Baseball and Softball, Inc. of Benton, Franklin County, 491 N.E.2d 933 (Ill. App. 5 Dist. 1986), plaintiff Jimmy Loosier was injured when he was struck by a truck while trying to cross an interstate highway. At the time of the accident, Loosier was selling baseball raffle tickets for defendant Youth Baseball and Softball, Inc. The facts of the case were as follows:

Youth Baseball is a not-for-profit organization which raises funds through raffle ticket sales. Members of the baseball team participated voluntarily with their parents' permission in the sale of raffle tickets to give away a new automobile as a means of financing the costs of the baseball program.

The raffle tickets were issued to the coaches who then issued tickets to the players to be sold by them. If a child did not participate in the fund-raising activities, the child lost no privileges.

Youth Baseball warned the children, upon distributing the initial ten raffle tickets to each child who particpated, not to sell them by themselves and not to go out without their parents' permission. Although some individual coaches took their baseball players out to sell tickets periodically, it was understood that the overall duty of supervision lay with the child's parents and not Youth Baseball.

Loosier was 11 years old at the time of his injury on July 22, 1982. He had been selling raffle tickets for the Youth Baseball program for four years when the accident occurred. When Loosier first began selling raffle tickets his mother warned him about places he should not go, people he should not sell to, and streets and highways he should avoid. She had instructed him to stop, look and listen when crossing streets. Loosier had also been instructed in safety on highway crossing at school.

On July 22, 1982, Loosier went to the WalMart store, which was approximately two miles from his home and across Interstate Route 57, west of Benton, Illinois. Priorto the accident, Loosier had gone to the shopping mall where the Wal-Mart store is located on his own or with his friends 10 to 20 times in order to sell raffle tickets or just to "goof-off. " The majority of the time Loosier had gone to Wal-Mart to sell tickets, he had gone without supervision. Loosier's mother knew when he went out to the mall by himself or with his friends, and that there was no adult with them.

After arriving at the mall, Loosier sold seven or eight tickets. Then Johnny Hines and some other kids asked Loosier to steal a "hot wheels car" from Wal-Mart. When Loosier refused, they said they were going to "beat the heck out" of Loosier if he didn't. Loosier then left Wal-Mart.

While he was standing outside in the parking lot, Loosier saw some other kids coming outside so he began running. As he was running, he could see Hines and the other children following him on bikes. Loosier ran toward Interstate 57 and made it safely across the southbound lanes of the interstate. When he was in the middle of the northbound portion of the interstate, he saw a semi-truck approaching. He slid and then started to scoot back up, and the truck ran over his leg.

Loosier alleged that "Youth Baseball owed a duty of supervision to him at the time and occasion of his injury." Specifically, Loosier argued that Youth Baseball "was negligent in that it was guilty of a breach of a duty owed him to supervise, watch over and care for Loosier while he was selling baseball raffle tickets."

The trial court granted Youth Baseball's motion for summary judgment. In the opinion of the trial court, "Youth Baseball owed no duty to Loosier under the circumstances because the injuries to Loosier did not arise out of a time in which raffle tickets were being sold due to the fact that the sale of tickets had effectively been terminated prior to the activity which led to Loosier's injuries." The trial court, however, did hold that Youth Baseball did have a duty to provide supervision for those children selling raffle tickets. Loosier appealed.

On appeal, the issue was, therefore, "whether the trial court appropriately granted Youth Baseball's motion for summary judgment on the grounds that Youth Baseball had no duty to exercise ordinary care for Loosier under the circumstances of the instant case." As described by the appeals court, a primary consideration in determining negligence liability is the existence of a duty of care owed by defendant to plaintiff.

It is fundamental that there can be no recovery in tort for negligence unless the defendant has committed a breach of duty owed to the plaintiff. Whether under the facts of a given case, such a relationship exists between the parties so as to require

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Youth sports

a legal obligation be imposed upon one for the benefit of another is a question of law to be determined by the court. In the absence of any showing upon which the court could infer the existence of a duty, no recovery is possible as a matter of law, and summary judgment in favor of the defendant is proper.

Whether the law imposes a duty upon a defendant for injuries to a plaintiff does not depend upon the factor of foreseeability alone but rather the likelihood of injury, the magnitude of the burden of guarding against it, and the consequences of placing that burden upon the defendant must also be taken into account. . . . Duty is not sacrosanct in itself, but only an expression of the sum total of those considerations of policy which lead the law to say that a particular plaintiff is entitled to protection.

As noted by the appeals court, foreseeability of harm will be considered by the jury in determining negligence liability only after the court has established that a duty existed for the defendant to protect the plaintiff at the time of the injury. In the absence of duty, there can be no negligence liability despite the foreseeability of harm to the plaintiff.

Youth Baseball provides a service to the community by sponsoring sports activities for young people without charge, and it raises money for these activities by the sale of raffle tickets by its members on a voluntary basis. The sale of tickets is done only with parental permission. Ticket sales are made by the players at times other than when they are under the supervision of the coaches on the playing field. In fact, the ticket sales are made by the youths who participate in the program at any time when they are not either playing or practicing.

We find that public policy does not require that citizens, who do volunteer work in coaching baseball and softball teams, provide supervision of all team members at the time when a team member is engaged in the activity of selling a raffle ticket. We find that the contrary is dictated by public policy because such a requirement would impose an unreasonable burden upon those who operate and sponsor the Youth Baseball program.

While Youth Baseball has a duty to supervise the activity of baseball and softball games while the players are on the field actively participating in the sport and entrusted by their parents to their coaches, we are unwilling to conclude that they are required to supervise those same players at any hour of the day or night when they might decide to sell a raffle ticket while they are under the care of their parents. Under the circumstances of the case at bar, public policy is best served by placing the burden of the care of the children upon their parents who permit them to participate in the raffle ticket sales.

The appeals court, therefore, concluded that "Youth Baseball had no duty of supervision" because at the time of the accident the care of Loosier had not been entrusted to Youth Baseball.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. James Kozlowski is an attorney in Springfield, VA. He is the author of the Recreation and Parks Law Reporter (RPLR) and the monthly "NRPA Law Review" column in the Parks & Recreation magazine, the official publication of the National Recreation and Park Association.

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