Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP has obtained a $31,000,000 settlement for plaintiff Emanuel “Manny” Garcia, a former Corona del Mar High School freshman football player who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a negligently maintained field by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Mr. Garcia was represented in the matter by PSR attorneys Brian Panish, Jesse Creed, and Hunter Norton.
“The District has taken responsibility for its failure to address the dangerous conditions of its field that harmed many children for more than a decade,” said Jesse Creed. “An unknown danger of high school sports is the hardness of their fields. The NFL and NCAA have regulations and inspection standards, but youth football remains wholly unregulated, exposing our kids to the serious danger of head injuries.”
On March 9, 2021, Manny was participating in a regularly scheduled practice when he was injured on the uneven terrain. The 15-year-old Corona del Mar High School student was wearing a helmet and suffered a life-altering brain bleed resulting in a traumatic brain injury with severe cognitive defects and emotional harms. Manny went from a top student to barely passing and suffered a lifetime of mental, physical, and emotional challenges.
“I want to thank the football coaches and program for standing by me,” Manny said. “Every school district should make sure the football fields are safe to play on so that this terrible thing never happens again.”
Newport-Mesa Unified School District had received repeated notice of the dangerous conditions of its natural turf fields from various field coaches, including football coaches, soccer coaches, and lacrosse coaches. These coaches warned specifically about the risk of head injuries, stating in one 2016 email that “due to the lack of grass and the lack of watering, the field has become too hard and will directly lead to an increase in head injuries.” Another parent called for the District to do industry-standard testing of field hardness to ensure the fields were safe, which the District did not do. Notice about the dangerous field conditions continued up to the 2021 football season.
Despite repeated notice of the condition, the District failed to take action to make the natural turf fields safe and continued to allow, and require, student athletes to practice and play there. Manny’s injuries were a result of Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s negligence