Thurman v. Clune

McCOMB, J.

From a judgment in favor of defendants after trial before a jury in an action to recover damages for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of defendants, plaintiff appeals.

The undisputed facts are:

March 24, 1938, plaintiff suffered injuries when she was struck in the mouth by a hockey puck while watching an ice hockey match in a pavilion known as the Ice Palace. The pavilion was owned by the defendant Ice Palace, a corporation, which had entered into an agreement with the Associated Student Body of the University of Southern California for the playing of the ice hockey match which plaintiff was witnessing.

The Ice Palace contained a rink in size, construction, and equipment conforming to the general custom and usage of such rinks prevailing throughout the United States and Canada. The skating surface was a sheet of ice approximately 194 feet long and 80 feet wide encompassed by a solid wooden wall three and one-half feet high. Tiers of seats for spectators surrounded the playing surface, those closest to the rink being box seats separated from the ice only by a wooden wall. A wire screen for the protection of spectators had been erected at each end of the rink. It extended upward from the wooden wall and for approximately 10 to 16 feet along both sides. The spectators’ seats were approximately 160 feet along each side of the rink and were not protected by screens. There were no signs giving any warning of danger to spectators, although on prior occasions spectators had been struck by flying pucks during the playing of ice hockey games.

About ten minutes before plaintiff was injured, she entered the rink and was seated in a box on one side of the rink,

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which was unprotected hy any wire screen. She had never seen an ice hockey game before and had not theretofore been in the Ice Palace. Shortly after she was seated, the puck, a hard rubber disk approximately three inches in diameter and one inch in thickness, was driven off the ice and struck plaintiff in the mouth, causing serious personal injury.

It is necessary for us to determine three questions, which will be stated and answered hereunder seriatim.

First: Was there substantial evidence to sustain the -finding of the jury that it wasn’t an act of negligence of defendants or either of them, which caused plaintiff’s injury?