Opinion ID: 2326886
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Enhanced Risk

Text: The respondent's reliance on the theory that the alleged negligent training of the spotters enhanced the risk is similarly misplaced. Of course, a plaintiff only assumes those risks that are inherent in the activity in which he is engaged. Crews, 358 Md. at 653, 751 A.2d at 495. Specifically, every risk is not necessarily assumed by one who works in a dangerous place or at a dangerous occupation. He assumes only those risks which might reasonably be expected to exist, and, if by some action of the defendant, an unusual danger arises, that is not so assumed. Bull S.S. Lines v. Fisher, 196 Md. 519, 526, 77 A.2d 142, 146 (1950). In the case sub judice, the respondent argues that the instructions given to the spotters prior to the Meet presented an enhanced risk of injury, and since Mr. Cotillo did not know about those instructions, he could not have assumed the enhanced risk that the instructions posed. We reject that position, because mere allegations of negligence, without more, even if genuinely in dispute, are not of consequence to the assumption of the risk analysis. Even assuming that the petitioners were negligent in training the spotters, the theory of enhanced risk contemplates reckless or intentional conduct; therefore, any disputes of fact regarding the petitioners negligence are immaterial to this analysis. In Kelly, the Court of Special Appeals held that, in the context of a voluntary sporting event, the doctrine of assumption of the risk barred a negligent instruction and training claim. Kelly, 155 Md.App. at 115, 841 A.2d at 888. In dicta, the Court of Special Appeals noted that it was not addressing injury resulting from an intentional or reckless act. Kelly, 155 Md. App. at 100, 841 A.2d at 879. Thus, the court recognized that the enhanced risk argument contemplates conduct that is intentional or reckless. See id. We also find persuasive the reasoning of courts in other jurisdictions, which have also held that, in the context of sports-related injuries, the enhanced risk doctrine contemplates intentional or reckless conduct. See, e.g. Kiley v. Patterson, 763 A.2d 583, 586 (R.I.2000) (adopting the heightened recklessness-or-intentional-misconduct standard in an action by a second baseman as a result of injuries sustained in a collision with a base runner); Wertheim, 150 A.D.2d at 158, 540 N.Y.S.2d at 445 (Generally the enhanced risk doctrine in sports injury cases involves fact patterns where a co-participant engages in reckless conduct causing injury to another participant.); see also Stanley L. Grazis, Annotation, Liability of Participant in Team Athletic Competition for Injury to or Death of Another Participant, 55 A.L.R.5th 529, 537 (1998) (Generally, courts have found that the duty of care owed by participants in team athletic events to each other is measured not by ordinary negligence standards, but by willfulness or recklessness standards because of considerations of the participants' assumption of risk or their consenting to an invasion of personal interests or rights by taking part in the subject contest.). While the respondent in the case sub judice appears to argue in his brief that the present case fits within this line of cases, by implying that there may have been intentional or reckless behavior by the petitioners, he offered no evidence to support that implication. Moreover, we find no support for any allegations of intentional or reckless behavior in this record. Furthermore, mere allegations which do not show facts in detail and with precision are insufficient to prevent the entry of summary judgment. Lynx v. Ordnance Prods., 273 Md. 1, 7-8, 327 A.2d 502, 509 (1974). As such, we conclude that any alleged improper training of the spotters did not pose an enhanced risk to Mr. Cotillo, because the risk of injury was one that was obvious and foreseeable, and not an unusual danger. On the contrary, to be injured by the weight and the lift bar is a risk of injury resulting from the type of physical contact that is an integral part of the sport as it is typically played. Kelly, 155 Md.App. at 97, 841 A.2d at 877. Because there was no intentional or reckless conduct, there was no enhanced risk. Therefore, there is no genuine dispute of material fact that Mr. Cotillo assumed the risk of injury from the lift bar when he participated in a powerlifting competition.