Look at the Moot Court case on page 42. Explain any possible liability for Carlos Curveballer, the stadium and the Windjammers baseball organization. Are there any mitigating factors for any of these parties?
Moot Court CaseIn October 2006, Harry Heckler and his wife Harriett Heckler attended a minorleague baseball game between the Raleigh River Rats and the Jacksonville Windjammersat the River Rat Stadium in North Carolina. It was a perfect day withmild temperatures and clear skies. Harry and Harriett are big fans of the RiverRats and attend every home game. They have season tickets along the third baseline on the first row so they can be near the players and heckle the opposing playersnear their dugout. On the day in question, Harry and Harriett were havinga great time drinking beer, eating peanuts, and heckling the players. The stadiumhad a policy of only serving one beer at a time to customers (and ending all salesafter the seventh inning), but Harry was a regular and was well known by the beervendors. Harry also had befriended one of the servers, Sally Slosh, who regularlywould slip him an extra beer or two. Harry would assure her that he was not drunkand that the other beers were for his wife and friends. In reality, he might bringHumanone beer back to his wife but he would drink the rest. He would later testify thatKineticsTort Law and Product Liability 43he could not remember exactly how many beers he had on this particular day,but it may have been more than five. He also said that he could "hold his beer"quite well. During the seventh inning stretch, after the song "Take Me Out to theBall Game," Harry spotted one of the opposing pitchers from the Windjammers,Carlos Curveballer. Carlos was a strong family man whose one weakness was anoccasional hot temper. This was exhibited in some brushback pitches (the playerscalled it "chin music") when he became angered on the mound. Harry andHarriett knew about his temper and decided they would try to help their team byamping up the heckling. Harry yelled out, "Hey Carlos, your mother wears Armyboots." Harriett, not to be outdone, yelled, "And she's ugly too." Carlos ran towardHarry and started shaking his fist at him while cursing in Spanish. Harry stoodup and shook his fists back at him while cursing in English and making racial slurs.The conflict had escalated. Carlos then did something unexpected; he threw aball toward Harry. Harry ducked and the ball hit Harriett in the face. Harriett fellto the ground, unconscious. The ball had hit her jaw, breaking her teeth and thebones on the right side of her face. She was injured further when she fell to theground, breaking her left arm and cracking three ribs. Stadium security personnelwere summoned, and 911 was called. Emergency medical personnel took Harriettto the nearest hospital. Harry and Harriett sued the stadium, Carlos Curveballer,and the Windjammers baseball organization for Harriett's injuries.Human K