Hazen v. Woodloch Pines Resort

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ERIN HAZEN, Plaintiff, v. WOODLOCH PINES RESORT d/b/a WOODLOCH PINES, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 3:21-cv-00174

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania

February 16, 2024

MEMORANDUM

(SAPORITO, M. J.)

Woodloch Pines Resort (“Woodloch”) is an all-inclusive family resort located in Pike County, Pennsylvania. Since the 1990s, it has offered corporate team building activities on an outdoor low ropes challenge course. One of the elements of this challenge course was a “balance beam” or “teeter-totter” device made up of a fulcrum with a plank on top of it. The plank or “beam” is 10-feet long and 10%-inches wide. The fulcrum is 12%-inches high and, when at its highest point, the end of the plank or beam is 3%4eet above the surface below. The area below and around the balance beam device was covered with wooden mulch presumably to, cushion the fall of any participants.

In June 2019, the plaintiff, Erin Hazen, was an assistant principal at KIPP TEAM Academy, a public charter school in Newark, New Jersey. She had been working there for about a year. On Saturday, June 22, 2019, Hazen and ten of her colleagues from the “leadership team” at KIPP TEAM Academy were on the third day of a leadership retreat at Woodloch. That morning, they participated in the outdoor challenge course activities as a team. After completing several other activities, they attempted the “balance beam” activity, where Hazen was injured.

The team was instructed by Eric Ranner, Woodloch's corporate activities director, that the goal of the balance beam activity was to get the entire 11-person leadership team onto the plank without breaking either of two eggs that had been placed under each end of the plank.^[1] The parties dispute whether Ranner gave any additional verbal instructions or warnings to the participants. Ranner was the only Woodloch employee present at the time.

After two unsuccessful attempts to complete the activity, the team was able to get ten members on the plank at once during its third attempt. When the eleventh team member mounted the plank, it became unbalanced and Hazen fell off, along with other participants.^[2] At least one other participant landed on top of Hazen.

As a result of her fall, Hazen suffered a gruesome ankle injury, including left ankle dislocation, a displaced left ankle trimalleolar fracture with transverse medial malleolar fracture, a transverse distal one-third fibula shaft fracture, syndesmotic rupture, and a minimally displaced proximal fracture in the metaphysis. Her medical treatment included three surgeries and ongoing physical therapy. Due to her injuries, resultant physical limitations, and her course of treatment, Hazen was forced to resign from her job at KIPP TEAM Academy^[3]

Hazen brought this federal diversity action asserting state-law negligence claims against each of the defendants. The defendants have answered the complaint, and, following the completion of discovery, they have moved for summary judgment. In support of their motion for summary judgment, the defendants argue that Hazen is barred from all recovery by the doctrine of primary assumption of the risk.

Because this is a diversity action, we must apply Pennsylvania's substantive law and federal procedural law. See Gasperini v. Cir. for Humans., Inc., 518 U.S. 415, 427 (1996). “Under Pennsylvania law, assumption of the risk is established by showing that the injured party fully appreciated the nature of the risk it faced and voluntarily assumed it. In addition, the injured party must not have had a meaningful and reasonable alternative path to avoid the risk.” Kirschbaum v WRGSB Assocs., 243 F.3d 145, 156-57 (3d Cir. 2001) (citation omitted); see also . Mucowski v Clark, 590 A.2d 348, 350 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1991) (“Voluntary assumption of the risk involves a subjective awareness of the risk inherent in an activity and a willingness - to accept it. A plaintiff has voluntarily assumed the risk where he fully understands it and Voluntarily chooses to encounter it.”) (citation omitted and emphasis added). “Under the doctrine of assumption of the risk, a defendant is relieved of its duty to protect a plaintiff where the plaintiff has voluntarily and deliberately proceeded to face a known arid obvious risk arid therefore is considered to have assumed liability for his own injuries.” Barrett v. FredavidBuilders, Inc., 685 A.2d 129,130 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1996); see also Carrender v. Fitterer, 469 A.2d 120, 125 (Pa. 1983) (holding that, when an invitee assumes the risk of injury from a dangerous condition, the landowner no longer owes the invitee a duty of care).

As the Carrender court explained:

A danger is deemed “obvious” when “both the condition and the risk are apparent to and would be recognized by a reasonable man, in the position of the visitor, exercising normal perception, intelligence, and judgment.” For a danger to be “known,” it must “not only be known to exist, but. . . also be recognized that it is dangerous and the probability arid gravity of the threatened harm must be appreciated.”

Carrender, 469 A.2d at 123-24 (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts § 343Acmt. b (Am. L. Inst. 1965)) (citations omitted, ellipsis in original).

“Whether the plaintiff knows of the existence of the risk, or whether he understands and appreciates its magnitude and its unreasonable character, is a question of fact, usually to be determined by the jury under proper instructions from the court. The court may itself determine the issue only where reasonable men could not differ as to the conclusion.”. Staymates E ITT Holub Indus., 527 A.2d 140, 146 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1987) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts §496D cmt.e); see also Kaplan v. Exxon Corp., 126 F.3d 221, 225 (3d Cir. 1997); Mucowski, _:590.A.2d at 350 (quoting Staymatesf Carrender, 469 A.2d at 124. As this court has previously explained:

Given that its application is a “drastic measure” barring a plaintiffs recovery, to grant summary judgment on assumption of the risk as a matter of law the court must-conclusively and beyond question- find that the plaintiff was subjectively aware of a specific risk, voluntarily accepted it and acted in spite of that risk, and suffered harm contemplated by that specific risk. The defendant's burden to establish assumption of the risk is a tall order, because . assumption of the risk requires knowledge of a specific risk, “It is not enough that the plaintiff was generally aware that the activity in which he was engaged had accompanying risks. Rather, the plaintiff must be aware of ‘the particular danger' from which he is subsequently injured in order to voluntarily assume that risk as a matter of law.”

Smerdon v. GEICO Cas. Co., 342 F.Supp.3d 582, 587 (M.D. Pa. 2018) (quoting Bullman v Giuntoli, 761 A.2d 566, 569 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2000), _:and Barillari v. Ski Sha wnee, Inc., 986 F.Supp.2d 555, 562-63 (M.D. Pa. 2013)) (footnotes omitted).

Here it is undisputed that Hazen was generally aware of the risk that she might fall from the balance beam during this activity. But “awareness of a general risk does not amount to awareness of a specific risk.” Smerdon, 342 F.Supp.3d at 588 (citing Barillari, 986 F.Supp.2d at 562-63). Awareness of the specific risk presented by the balance beam activity here includes not just an appreciation of the general possibility that she might fall, but also an appreciation of the likelihood of a fall and the potential for serious injury such as the complex multiple ankle fractures and other injuries that our plaintiff in fact suffered.^[4] See Kirschbaum, 243 F.3d at 157 (finding evidence sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that office building tenant, who was aware of a broken handrail and that it would not aid him if he were to trip while on the stairs, lacked the necessary appreciation of the likelihood that he could fall and need to rely on the handrail); Rice v. Skytop Lodge Corp., No. 00-2243, 2002 WL 775484, at *3 (M.D. Pa. Apr. 23, 2002) (finding evidence Sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that a sledder, who was aware of general risks of sledding and who had observed the placement of a plastic fence at the bottom of the sledding hill, did not understand the specific risk of serious injury that might be caused by colliding with the fence); Mucowski, 590 A.2d at 350 (finding evidence sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that a senior engineering student, who was familiar with a pool and the...