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In California, waivers of liability are
upheld, so long as they are reasonably easy to read (no 3-pt type) and
understandable (meaning apparent in relatively plain English).
Nowadays--since those old cases refusing to enforce waivers--virtually all
waivers meet those criteria and are therefore enforceable.
By the way, even though we don't have the
limited liability statute for equine sports in California, we have the
concept of "assumption of the risk" from common law, which means there is
liability for injuries caused by negligence but not for risks inherent to equine
sports.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 5:02
PM
Subject: Re: [RC] Waivers for
minors
Many moons ago I was president of a ski club at the company
where I worked. The company decided to stop sponsoring clubs and told all the
clubs, ski club, camera club, etc. we could still use space in the company for
meeting, etc., but we needed to incorporate if we wanted to still exist.
What I learned in the process of incorporation was an eye opener. On
all our trips we always had a waiver signed - releasing the club of liability.
What our lawyer told us was while that was a good idea in reality it was worth
about as much as the paper it was written on if you went to court. It was
better to have it than not but it was no protection.
Some of the
equine zero liability laws are pretty good, there are situations in which you
can sue and collect - like negligence.
Truman
SandyDSA@xxxxxxx wrote:
In a message dated 7/24/2002 4:39:23 AM Pacific
Standard Time, plasmatica@xxxxxxxxxxx
writes:
This case was
about a teenage boy training on a ski racing
course who smacked a tree adn
ended up blind. Though his parents
had signed a minor release form waiving
sueing, they sued anyway,
claiming negligence on the part of those who set
up the
course.
You know what? I don't know
about all of you, but I for one am SO SICk and tired of people engaging in
activities which are like, SO CLEARLY challenging, to say the least, perhaps
NOT being schooled well enough to do it - then when something goes wrong,
they sue. What IS THIS??
If a judge has to spend any amount of time
LOOKING for some kind of negligence, PROBABLY there WAS none, and the
individual simply had no business doing what they were doing in the first
place. Our daughters are not only being TAUGHT but seeing their parents as
examples of responsibility and consequences. If you DON'T want to risk
bashing into a tree, stay out of the forest - or get some quality
instruction. It puts me in mind of the parents - moms particularly - who put
their young daughters, 8-10 years old - into riding lessons, and scream
bloody murder if they are not jumping fences and showing and winning inside
of 6 weeks. (I don't take those people myself!) Then when little Janey goes
off and breaks an arm, the parents sue the riding school. You wonder why
lessons, boarding, etc are so expensive these days. That is why. No common
sense or sense of personal responsibility. I now have to charge $40 an HOUR
- with at least a few weeks spent on a line for ANY new student - thanks to
teh costs of insurance.. So anyone who thinks th ese lesson costs are high -
now you know. Grrr. Sorry - this just chaps my hide.:)
San (off the
sopabox now and into the
shower)
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