A New Jersey teenager left brain-damaged after being struck by a line drive off a metal bat while he was playing in a youth baseball game will receive $14.5 million to settle his lawsuit against the bat manufacturer, Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain.
The settlement of Steven Domalewski’s lawsuit was announced in state Superior Court on Wednesday morning in Passaic County. The boy, now 18, lives in Wayne, N.J. His family had claimed the metal bat was unsafe because baseballs could carom off it at much faster speeds than wooden bats.
“The Domalewskis are still saddened by the tragic events of June 2006, but this settlement provides them with some relief and comfort that Steven will get the care he needs for the rest of his life,” said the family’s attorney, Ernest Fronzuto. “He still can’t perform any functions of daily life on his own.”
Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball Inc., said the settlement guarantees that “Steven Domalewski will receive the lifetime care he will require as a result of this tragic accident, a type of accident that is extremely rare in youth baseball.”
Fronzuto said the settlement precluded him from discussing its details, including whether any of the defendants admitted liability.
Domalewski was pitching when the batter rocketed a line drive off the metal bat he was swinging.
The ball slammed into Steven’s chest, just above his heart, knocking him backward. He clutched his chest, then made a motion to reach for the ball on the ground to pick it up and throw to first base to get the runner out.
But he never made it that far. The ball had struck his chest at the precise millisecond between heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest, according to his doctors. He crumpled to the ground and stopped breathing.
His father, Joseph, a teacher who had been on the sideline with the rest of the team, said he and a third base coach from the other team both ran onto the field, where Steven was already turning blue.
Someone yelled, “Call 911!” Within 90 seconds, a man trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation who had been playing catch with his 9-year-old daughter jumped over the fence and started to work on Steven.
Paramedics, who were a quarter-mile away doing a CPR demonstration, got to Steven within minutes, placed an oxygen mask over his face and rushed him to a hospital. But the damage had been done; his brain had been without oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes.
“Pretty much, he died,” Joseph Domalewski said in a 2008 interview with The Associated Press. “It was just so fast. The thud, you could hear. When it hit him, that seemed to echo.”
Domalewski was playing in a Police Athletic League game, but Little League was sued because the group certifies that specific metal bats are approved for — and safe for — use in games involving children.
Rick Redman, a spokesman for Hillerich and Bradsby, manufacturers of the Louisville Slugger brand bat, confirmed a settlement had been reached, but declined further comment.
An attorney representing The Sports Authority, the national sporting goods retailer, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Little League reached an agreement with the major manufacturers in the early 1990s to limit metal bats’ performance to that of the best wooden bats. Little League said in 2008 that injuries to its pitchers fell from 145 a year before the accord was reached to the current level of about 20 to 30 annually.
The organization’s website lists scores of metal-barreled bat models that remain approved for use in Little League play.
A tragic accident. I wonder how much the lawyers will get.
It’s usually 1/3. They don’t get anything if they lose though.
They shouldn’t make a dime. Profiting off of tragedy is morally abhorrent.
33% is how much is attorneys generally make on cases such as these……sad but true.
Are you kidding? You play sports, you take calculated risks. How can they sue the bat company? That’s like, if I took it and smashed someone over the head…. Well, the metal bat did more damage then the wooden one because it was more dense and I didnt know that. Had I hit them with a wooden bat it would have been different. Lets sue!
Its truly unfortunate, what happened to him and his family. I also understand that caring for him is going to cost lots of money. But, that’s why people have health insurance, and medicare and other similar things, right? Doesnt the government set aside funds to care for the disabled? This was a tragic accident that has forever changed the lives of the child and his family, indeed. But I questions why do people always need to profit from tragedy? And, 14.5 million? That is a lot of money.
Suing the bat company because a ball bounced off it and hurt someone is absurd. People get hurt playing sports all the time. People get hurt climbing out of bed. Should we sue the sheet makers because their products tangle up our feet? If I nearly choked to death on an ice cube, should I sue my water company, the freezer and/or ice cube tray manufacturer, the company who made my cup, the company who produced my beverage or the person who made the ice? Ill refer to the similar and commonly used argument that its like suing Mcdonalds for making you obese. Its just silly. In this case, the child was pitching and someone smashed it good. Why not sue the company who made the ball? Why not sue the kid behind the bat? Clearly its more his fault, right? Without him hitting the ball it wouldnt have done anything. How is the bat or the manufacturer or retailer to blame? I mean, really? Its baseball. The objective is to hit the ball… and it can go anywhere once you do.
People in this country will sue for anything…. and they’ll get it.
Glad the kid is going to be looked after, though. The suffering of a child (yes, i know he is now 18) is the saddest of any of lifes events. Hopefully every penny of that 14.5m is spent on him. I think it should be placed into an account where it is monitored so the parents do not have the ability to spend it willy nilly, as I am sure they are planning to do.
Thank god someone said it!!! My feet hurt really bad from standing in a pair of cheap flats while at a job all night…maybe I should sue the shoe manufacturer?
I’m sorry the kid was hit and has issues, but this is ridiculous…they shouldn’t have received a dime.
I think you should. Clearly its the most reasonable option and I don’t see any other potential solutions to the problem. If suing the shoe manufacturer doesn’t fly, go for the company who made the floor. Accept no less then a million, at the very least. Seems to be adequate. Make sure you emotionalize your claim as much as possible, it’ll help.
Only in America!
Ok we will see if my other comment will show up it just said it is waiting approval so I will make this short and to my point. This is no different then the guy who sued Mcdonalds for spilling his coffee and sued because the cup didnt say “caution hot”.
I remember this case. There are and were a lot of cases like this where the speeds at which balls hit by metal bats have struck kids in the chest killing or seriously injuring them. They shouldn’t be used.
It’s a game that started out using wooden bats, even for adults. For Little Leaguers, it should remain so.
Im sorry for saying this but as a pitcher in baseball the absolute worse thing is to get hit by a line drive right back up the middle. Many MLB pitchers have had their careers end after taking a hit by a line drive with a wood bat. Im sorry but this was a freak accident. Wether they had the new BBCOR or the old standard bats or even a wood bat this was that just a freak accident. There is nothing any Bat manufacture or any safety regulation that could’ve prevent what happened. “The ball had struck his chest at the precise millisecond between heartbeats” What are the chances of that happening like one in a million. What happened was tragic and was in no way the manufactures fault. This just goes to show how bad today society is. The speed of the ball coming off the bat would not have mattered because even with a wood bat the ball travels at 2 or 3 times the speed of the thrown ball. Plus the ball weighs the same as an apple so you take that to the chest its gunna hurt. It was freak accident. Just ask Randy Johnson about freak accidents when he hit a pigeon with a 98 MPH fast ball as the bird flew in front of the plate….he got fined 2500.00 by PETA because he hit the bird. FREAK ACCIDENT…. I feel sorry for the family but if they’re gunna suit someone how about the Ambulance company or the hospital for lack of response time. Or even the venue because there wasn’t an AED available. This was not the bat companies fault. The family shouldn’t have been awarded this at all.
Maybe the family should have sued the glove company because it was too small and didn’t give him the opportunity to catch the ball. Maybe they should have sued the tee shirt company because it didn’t soften the blow. Maybe they should sue the coach for not teaching the kid to catch. Maybe they should sue the OTHER coach for teaching the batter to precisely hit the ball back up the middle. If the batter was using a wooden bat, who is to say the ball wouldn’t have hit the pitcher between the NEXT two heartbeats? (Because it would have been that much slower!) How about suing the umpire because three batters ago, he walked the kid on a questionable ball THUS allowing for the batter who used the dispicable bat in question the opportunity to bat??
Does anybody see where I’m going with this??
Sorry, but this isnt right…….Now they will be outlawing metal bats….Really????
It is called an accident for a reason. Such a sad statement in America where someone has to pay for something that cannot be avoided. So now, should bats be banned as they can cause harm to another? Should we ban baseballs as this is what actually caused the injury. I am sorry for the injuries and the money will hopefully go for his lifelong medical care. At least the 1/3 the lawyers didn’t take. This is also why you have to sign releases for your child to play sports. I had to sign a release last month to renew my CPR saying if I hurt myself my employer is not liable. Only because the lawyers can sue and obviously win over just about anything.
They make it sound like the manufacturer forced that team to use metal bats. They create the bats and sell them. Someone bought the bat, maybe the coach, an said “let’s use this in this league”, an accident happens then let’s blame the people who made the bat because the wrong choice was made by allowing it to be used in the game.
The point is this young man will receive the care he needs.
I am sorry for his injuries… but why does everyone have to blame someone… but themselves…. oops gotta go… gotta go sue the gun manufacturers…..
How tragic, but not worthy of a lawsuit. I’m curious-how can he have gone without oxygen to his brain for 15-20 minutes if CPR was started within 90 seconds of him getting hit?