Bouchard wins negligence case

Court finds USTA 75% responsible for negligence when Bouchard slipped and fell at the 2015 US Open.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/sports/tennis/eugenie-bouchard-usta-lawsuit.html

$9.99 a month to read this article? Sorry but no. Seems like months since I looked at the NY Times anyway, surprised that they are blocking me. But OK, seems like just changing to a different browser has fooled them. Millions of dollars for leaving a wet floor, doesn't seem right to me. Very litigous country. I'd like to see someone sue the Shanghai Open for millions for slipping on the floor; good luck with that. Now tournaments will have to spend a lot of time being uber cautious about everything.

Still...it's hard to really judge if you weren't there just how bad and how careless it was etc.

I had to do some cleaning floors once when I worked in a factory. There was a small area near the top of the stairs that I would just leave dirty.

Well I was able to read it because I was given "five free articles".  Anyway thanks for covering this Reckoner, the BBC have nothing on it.  

I had heard of what happened and knew there was some sort of legal action, but that was a long time ago.  She basically slipped, hit her head on the solid floor, was concussed and suffered some sort of brain injury.  The court has decided that 75% of the liability lies with the USTA and 25% with herself.  The next court process is to decide on the damages associated with the loss of earnings etc as a result of the injury.  Whatever is decided she will get 75% of it.

As far as I can tell she was wanting to get to the (iced) baths, the players have to pass through something called the trainers room to get to the baths and she slipped while she was passing through the trainers room.  Furthermore the floor of the trainers room, which is tiled, had been recently polished, which apparently made the floor very slippery.  

Any Health & Safety examination would have likely spotted this danger and would have recommended changes - such as having a gripped surface rather than shiny polished tiles and having some sort of rubberised surface layer (e.g. linoleum).  It seems it was a tiled stone floor. Yet according to the lawyer representing the USTA the USTA had operated the system everyday for thirty years and had not had a similar problem - but I am not sure whether I can believe that (people must have surely slipped on the floor in the past?). Apparently the normal procedure was that there would be an attendant in the trainers room and that the floor would only be polished when all the players had left for the day. Anyway the judge was satisfied that the bulk of the liability falls with the USTA.

YVW @NNB

This case will set an interesting precedent, I feel. In details elsewhere she claims she slipped on cleaning fluid that then burned her back.

I wonder what her losses will be - whatever else she may say, it appears not to have affected her burgeoning career as a jazz mag artiste.

An interesting video but not sure it will be considered as relevant given that many sports people are also from time to time paid to model and advertise.  I think Sports Illustrated specialises in illustrating sports women and sports men (?).

For Example:

Bouchard may have won her legal court case but is decidely losing all her tennis court matches. Looks like she's going to become another Anna Kournikova and must decide whether she's a model/celebrity or a tennis player.

I think in this instance some are being unfair on Bouchard (see my previous comment) and possibly ever so slightly sexist.  

The question of compensation is now in the hands of people in full possession of the material facts with the appropriate ability to call on various experts to help in the interpretation of those material facts.  

The USTA is not short of a bob or two in having expert legal representation and the ability to call on appropriate experts in arguing on the amount of damages.  I am sure they would be using such relevant arguments as form prior and after the incident as well as Bouchard's focus and commitment to the sport.  One thing they must avoid is "sexist" arguments.

I think you are being a tad over-sensitive. If she won her case, then I'm sure she deserved to, and she'll get her compensation calculated on an appropriate basis - nobody can have any sensible argument with that. If it has contributed towards her loss of form that's really sad - and legal cases after injury can have a psychological effect on recovery too.

She's not the only tennis player to have been in SI, and she won't be the last. Maybe it's a matter of personal taste, but I think that some of the outfits, and one in particular, fall on the indecent side of the line, designed to titillate and show flesh without even being particularly attractive, and that's a shame. It tends to over-emphasise unnecessarily the fact that she is these days more known for her looks than for her sporting prowess. All that said, it's up to her to make her money as best she can, and if she can't claw her form back I don't blame her for maxing out on her looks - only a curmudgeon would deny her beauty.