American Powerlifting v. Cotillo

• Decision Date: 16 October 2007
• Docket Number: No. 6, September Term, 2007.,6, September Term, 2007.
• Citation: 934 A.2d 27,401 Md. 658
• Parties: AMERICAN POWERLIFTING ASSOCIATION, et al. v. Christopher COTILLO.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

934 A.2d 27

401 Md. 658

AMERICAN POWERLIFTING ASSOCIATION, et al. v. Christopher COTILLO.

No. 6, September Term, 2007.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

October 16, 2007.

J. Michael Sloneker (Jason P. Beaulieu, Anderson, Coe & King, LLP, Baltimore; Michael J. Mann, Towson), on brief, Samuel N. Shapiro (Jeffrey R. Schmieler, Saunders & Schmieler, P.C., Silver Spring), on brief for Petitioners.

Kimberly A. Alley, Littleton, MA, on brief, Henry L. Belsky (Schlachman, Belsky & Weiner, P.A., Baltimore), on brief for Respondent.

Argued Before BELL, C.J., RAKER, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ALAN M. WILNER, (Retired, Specially Assigned) and DALE R. CATHELL, (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

GREENE, Judge.

This matter arises from a civil action filed in the Circuit Court for Calvert County by the respondent, Christopher Cotillo, against the petitioners, collectively, William Duncan, the American Powerlifting Association ("the APA"), and the Board of Education of Calvert County ("the Board"), for injuries Mr. Cotillo sustained while participating in a powerlifting competition. Mr. Cotillo asserted various negligence claims, and both sides filed motions for summary judgment. The Circuit Court granted the petitioners' motions for summary judgment on the grounds that Mr. Cotillo assumed the risk of his injuries. On appeal, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court in part and reversed in part, holding that summary judgment was proper as to all claims except the claim that the spotters were negligently trained.

The petitioners ask this Court to decide whether the Circuit Court erred in finding that Mr. Cotillo's claim, that the spotters were negligently instructed, was barred by assumption of the risk, in light of the trial court's additional determination that Mr. Cotillo assumed the risk of injury during a lift, and that Mr. Cotillo assumed the risk that the spotters would fail to protect him in the event of a failed lift.

We shall hold that there is no genuine issue of material fact that Mr. Cotillo assumed the usual and foreseeable risks of the sport when he voluntarily entered a powerlifting competition, and therefore summary judgment was appropriate. There is no genuine dispute that the immediate cause of the respondent's injury was his attempt to qualify by bench pressing 530 pounds. As a result, whether any of the petitioners were negligent in failing to prevent the respondent's injury is of no consequence. Furthermore, any dispute of fact as to whether the spotters were negligent is immaterial because their mere negligence is insufficient to support a finding of enhanced risk.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On November 8, 2003, Mr. Cotillo, a powerlifter with ten years of experience, was injured during the 2003 Southern Maryland Open Bench Press & Deadlift Meet ("the Meet"), when he attempted to lift 530 pounds. The Meet was sanctioned by the APA, and held at Patuxent High School, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Board. It was organized by Mr. Duncan the faculty sponsor of Patuxent High School's weightlifting club, and Scott Taylor, APA president.

Before the Meet, the lifters were informed that they could use their own spotters.¹ Mr. Cotillo did not exercise this option,² electing instead to use the spotters provided by the organizers of the Meet. Mr. Duncan recruited Chris Smith and Chris Blair, Patuxent High School students, to act as spotters during the Meet. At the time of the Meet, Mr. Smith was fifteen years old, approximately five feet and eight to ten inches tall, and 180 pounds. Mr. Blair, at the time of the Meet, was fourteen years old, approximately six feet tall, and weighed 260 pounds. Both spotters had some weightlifting experience.

On the morning of the Meet, Mr. Duncan spoke with the spotters and told them that, while they should keep their hands close to the bar, they could not touch the bar because it would disqualify the lift. Mr. Taylor further instructed the spotters that if the lifter were to hesitate, without making any downward motion with the bar, they should wait for the referee's instruction to grab the bar. If the lifter were to hesitate and the bar were to come down, Mr. Taylor instructed the spotters that they should not wait for the referee's instruction, but instead grab the bar.

During the Meet, Mr. Cotillo wore a "Karin's Xtreme Power" double denim bench shirt, which allowed him to lift approximately 150 pounds more than he could have without the shirt. The spotters were positioned on either side of the bar, and Mr. Duncan was positioned in the middle. Mr. Cotillo's first two lifts in the Meet, using the spotters, were uneventful. On his third lift, Mr. Cotillo was attempting to lift 530 pounds. Mr. Cotillo brought the bar down without any trouble. As he began to lift it, he had some difficulty,³ at which point Mr. Blair testified that he began to move his own hands closer to the bar. The judge instructed the spotters to grab the bar, but as the spotters closed in, the bar came down, striking Mr. Cotillo in the jaw. The entirety of these events happened within a matter of seconds. As a result of the incident, Mr. Cotillo suffered a shattered jaw, a laceration, and damage to several teeth, requiring treatment.

On January 15, 2004, the respondent filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Calvert County. In his amended complaint, Mr. Cotillo asserted various claims of negligence against Mr. Duncan, the APA, and the Board.⁴ Each of the parties filed motions for summary judgment and on February 3, 2006, the court denied the respondent's motion and granted the petitioners' motions, on the grounds that Mr. Cotillo assumed the risk of his injuries.

Mr. Cotillo filed an appeal with the Court of Special Appeals, which affirmed in part and reversed in part The Court of Special Appeals held that summary judgment was properly entered on all claims except the negligence claim grounded in allegations of improper preparatory instruction of the spotters. The intermediate appellate court reasoned that because Mr. Cotillo did not know the spotters were improperly trained,⁵ and because their improper training presented an enhanced risk not normally incident to the sport, Mr. Cotillo could not have assumed the risk. Cotillo v. Duncan, 172 Md.App. 29, 54, 912 A.2d 72, 86-87 (2006).

The APA and the Board filed petitions for writ of certiorari in this Court, which we granted.⁶ American Powerlifting v. Cotillo, 398 Md. 313, 920 A.2d 1058 (2007).

DISCUSSION

I. Parties' Arguments

The petitioners argue that the Court of Special Appeals erred by holding that Mr. Cotillo could not have assumed the risk that the spotters would be negligently trained. They contend that the doctrine of assumption of the risk operates independently from the law of negligence, and therefore it is irrelevant whether they may have been negligent in training the spotters. The petitioners reason that holding otherwise would create a problem of circular logic, enabling plaintiffs to escape an assumption of the risk defense by claiming that they could not have anticipated the defendants' negligence.

The petitioners further argue that the Court of Special Appeals erred by failing to consider the video footage of the event, which the Circuit Court considered and was part of the record submitted to the Court of Special Appeals.

The respondent argues that the petitioners were negligent in training the spotters, and that their negligent training presented an enhanced risk to Mr. Cotillo that he could not have assumed. The respondent contends that he could not have assumed the particular risk that the spotters would be negligently trained because assumption of the risk requires that Mr. Cotillo have particular knowledge of the risks he assumes, and he had no prior knowledge of the training the spotters received before he encountered the risk.

Further, the respondent contends that the alleged negligent training of the spotters enhanced the risk to Mr. Cotillo, and that this increased risk was not a risk inherent in the sport. Because the respondent believes that this increased risk creates a dispute as to whether Mr. Cotillo knowingly and voluntarily confronted a particular risk, he argues that summary judgment was inappropriate.⁷

Finally, the respondent contends that the Court of Special Appeals properly considered the video footage of the incident, and that further interpretation of the video is a matter for the trier of fact.

II. Standard of Review

We are asked in the case sub judice to review the Circuit Court's entry of summary judgment and we do so de novo. Educational Testing Serv. v. Hildebrant, 399 Md. 128, 139, 923 A.2d 34, 40 (2007). In a review of a grant of summary judgment, our two-part analysis determines first whether there is a genuine dispute of material fact, and then whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. Where a dispute regarding a fact can have no impact on the outcome of the case, it is not a dispute of material fact such that it can prevent a grant of summary judgment. Miller v. Bay City Property Owners Ass'n, Inc., 393 Md. 620, 631, 903 A.2d 938, 945 (2006). For purposes of reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we construe the facts before this Court in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Todd v. MTA, 373 Md. 149, 155, 816 A.2d 930, 933 (2003).

III. Assumption of the Risk

Assumption of the risk is a doctrine whereby a plaintiff who intentionally and voluntarily exposes himself to a known risk, effectively, consents to relieve the defendant of liability for those risks to which the plaintiff exposes himself. ADM Partnership v. Martin, 348 Md. 84, 91, 702 A.2d 730, 734 (1997) (quoting Rogers v. Frush, 257 Md. 233, 243, 262 A.2d 549, 554 (1970)). Assumption of the risk is a defense that completely bars any recovery by the plaintiff. Crews v. Hollenbach, 358 Md. 627, 640, 751 A.2d 481, 488 (2000). The...