A twelve-year-old boy, who suffered life-changing injuries after being struck by a baseball, has had a boys sports injury claim for compensation resolved out of court for 14.5 million dollars.
The boy – Steven Domalewski (now 18) from Wayne in New Jersey – was playing as a pitcher in a Police Athletic League game in 2006, when the ball he had just thrown has hit back at him with such force that it knocked him over. As he lay on the ground, Steven went into cardiac arrest due to the location on his chest where the ball had hit him and it took 15 minutes for emergency services to resuscitate him – during which time he had suffered brain damage due to a lack of oxygen reaching his brain.
After seeking legal advice, Steven´s family made a boys sports injury claim for compensation against the manufacturers of the metal baseball bat which had been used in the game, the retail company who had sold it and Little League Baseball for sanctioning use of the high-performance bat in children´s games of baseball.
The family claimed that had a wooden bat been used, the ball would not have hit Steven with such force and his injuries would not have been so severe. They supported their claim with figures produced by Little League Baseball which showed an 80 percent decline in serious injuries to pitchers when the performance of metal baseball bats was limited to that of their wooden equivalents in 2008.
The manufacturers of the baseball bat, the retail company who sold it and Little League Baseball each denied their liability for Steven´s injuries but, as a trial was about to commence at the State Superior Court in Passaic County, it was announced that a settlement of Steven´s boys sports injury claim had been reached and that he was to receive 14.5 million dollars to provide care and support for him during his adult years.