In a decision with impact for all Maryland athletes, the state?s highest court ruled Tuesday that athletes can?t successfully sue over “foreseeable” injuries sustained during competition.
“This protects any organization that puts on or hosts sporting events,” said Samuel Shapiro, attorney for American Powerlifting Association. “This was the right ruling.”
The decision stems from a 2003 powerlifting meet at Patuxent High School, during which Christopher Cotillo attempted to lift 530 pounds.
But as Cotillo lifted the bar into the air, he faltered and the weight came crashing down on the champion powerlifter?s face.
Cotillo was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center with a shattered jaw.
“They told these young spotters not to touch the bar unless a judge tells them to,” said Cotillo?s attorney Kim Alley. “In Maryland, the court ruled, you are presumed to know if you?re facing an obvious risk. If you play baseball, you know you could get hit by a baseball. But Mr. Cotillo didn?t know he would be competing essentially without spotters.”
Cotillo sued the American Powerlifting Association, alleging his high school-age spotters were untrained, negligent and instructed not to grab the bar before it broke his jaw — but the case was thrown out by a Calvert County judge.
He appealed — won a temporary victory in Maryland?s second highest court — until Tuesday.
“By voluntarily participating in a powerlifting competition, Mr. Cotillo assumed the risks that are the usual and foreseeable consequences of participation in weightlifting,” Judge Clayton Greene wrote in the Maryland Court of Appeals decision.
