Cowboys Stadium Ice Victim Warned by Police?
Super Bowl XLV didn't go down without a hitch. In addition to thousands of fans being left without a seat, perched on top of Cowboys Stadium, ice began to slide onto visiting fans below. As it turns out, one of the Cowboys Stadium falling ice victims was actually warned by the police.
When the news first broke on the Friday before the game that ice and snow were falling from the stadium's domed roof, lawyers around the country began salivating at the mouth. Did the Cowboys Stadium falling ice victims have a lawsuit on their hands?
When considering the question, this blogger thought that it was a definite possibility. Landowners, after all, have a duty to make their property safe for people they invite onto their property. And if it's too difficult to make safe, they have a duty to warn their visitors of any danger. At the time of the incident, there were no reports that the six Cowboys Stadium ice victims were warned by stadium staff. It was therefore concluded that the stadium probably opened itself up to a negligence lawsuit.
City officials, however, released e-mails this week detailing the Cowboys Stadium ice events, reports Dallas Morning News. In addition to explaining how the stadium sought to clean up the ice--ordinary hoses, eventually replaced by fire hoses--the e-mails include a statement from a fire official who notes that one of the victims had been warned prior to the accident, according to the paper. This could potentially change the outcome of this victim's lawsuit fate.
Lest the public think that Cowboys Stadium doesn't take its duty to its patrons seriously, other news outlets are reporting that the city and stadium co-opted state vehicles to cover the parking lot in snow, to protect visitors from ice slippage. If they couldn't make the roof safe, they could surely make the parking lots safe.
Related Resources:
- Local fan reaction: The disaster of Super Bowl XLV (Yahoo!)
- Firm to try to keep ice from building up on Cowboys Stadium roof (Kansas City Star)
- Super Bowl Seating Lawsuit: Fans Sue NFL Over Seating Snafu (FindLaw's Tarnished Twenty)
