QUESTION:
I was injured at a gym under instruction due to their equipment. Should I sue? I was taking an acrobatics class and was told by the instructor to execute a flip. I landed as instructed, but the pad the instructor provided didn’t give enough cushion. I went through the pad, hit the ground, and significantly damaged the muscles in my lower lumbar. I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor at the time. The insurance company didn’t contact me for two months, they don’t seem to listen to me, and the owner has not made communication a priority. Other members of the gym told me after the incident that they had similar experiences with the pad in question. I now have residual pain, and the insurance is still communicating very poorly. I wanted to resolve this amicably, but they aren’t making an effort or even trying to be hospitable. The owner never reached out to me and I’ll only received a few terse e-mails. I do have one where they admit fault however. This injury has damaged me psychologically and financially and I want to know if I have grounds to recoup damages.
ANSWER:
A gym owner/operator owes its members a duty to maintain the equipment in safe working ordertriable factual issuewhether user’s fall caused by sticky substance on treadmill was due to gym’s. negligence in not inspecting equipment; Rostai v. Neste Enterprises (2006)138 CA4th 326, 337, 41 CR3d 411, 419, fn. 3]. But there is no duty to monitor a member’s physical response during a fitness training session to prevent inherent risks, such as muscle injury or even a heart attack. [Rostaiv. Neste Enterprises, supra, 138 CA4th at 336–337, 41 CR3d at 418–419]. Whether to pursue a claim (¶ 1:61 ff.) and the manner in which a particular claim should be pursuedwith respect to settlement (Ch. 4) depends in substantial part on the value of the claim. “Value” is, to a large extent, a reflection of the damages incurred. Thus, every claim must be analyzed from the outset for its damages components; and for the “odds” on the extent of recoverable damages. At the very least, a person who has suffered injury through the fault of another is entitled to “be made whole”—i.e., to be restored insofar as is possible to his or her preinjury condition through a “compensatory” damages award. Clearly, the person who sustained personal injury as a proximate result of the wrongful act of another can recover compensatory damages on his or her own behalf. Ordinarily, the most “valuable” element of a bodily injury claim is the right to compensation for all “pain and suffering” plaintiff has sustained, and will endure, as a proximate result of the injury. ”: “Pain and suffering” is a unitary concept, encompassing all the physical discomfort and emotional trauma occasioned by an injury. Plaintiff is entitled to compensatory damages for all physical pain suffered … and also for all resulting “fright, nervousness, grief, anxiety, worry, mortification, shock, humiliation, indignity, embarrassment, apprehension, terror or ordeal.” It would be best to seek personal assistance from a lawyer in order to guide you in filing a personal injury claim.
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