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Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
Bourne v. Marty Gilman, Inc.
Citation:
452 F.3d 632 (2006)Facts
In October 2001, 21-year-old Andrew Bourne attended his first tailgating party at a Ball State football game. Near the end of the fourth quarter, he joined a crowd storming the field to celebrate the team’s victory. Ball State had encouraged the crowd with a scoreboard message reading, “The goalpost looks lonely.” Bourne did not directly pull down the goalpost but was near it when he heard a snap and the post fell on his back, causing injuries that rendered him paraplegic. Bourne testified that while he knew the post would collapse, he expected it to do so gradually rather than suddenly snapping. The aluminum “slingshot” style goalpost manufactured by Gilman Gear weighed 470 pounds and stood about 40 feet tall. Neil Gilman, the company’s president, acknowledged that his company knew fans sometimes tear down goalposts. The Bournes’ expert witness argued that the posts were defective because they would bend but then suddenly snap, and that alternative designs existed that would reduce this risk.
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