Friday, June 10, 2011

Running in Church Not the Same as Being Hit by a Coconut At Zulu Parade at Mardi Gras

Bass v. Aetna Insurance Co., 370 So.2d 511 (La. 1979)

It was a revival service in church. Reverend Rodney Jeffers, preaching to the congregation of Shepard's Fold Church, stated that the doors of the church should be opened and referred to the possibility of “running.” Mr. Fussell, a member of the church, ran down the church aisle and collided with Mrs. Bass, a member of the church who was in the aisle praying because there weren't enough seats for everyone.

Fussell testified that he was “trotting” under the Spirit of the Lord and does not remember actually running into Mrs. Bass. But another witness testified that she saw Fussell run into Bass and knock her down. The Court said this didn't let Fussell off the hook: "A worshiper in church has no more right to run over a fellow worshiper in the aisle than a passerby on the sidewalk."

The Court specifically rejected the idea that this incident was an "Act of God" (a theory that is sometimes used as a defense to injury claims).

To complicate matters, Fussell was not running for himself but for Reverend Jeffers, so "said to open the doors, he felt like running and he didn't have room because of the crowd and would somebody please run for him.“

Because there had been no previous accidents, Bass did not assume the risk of injury. Bass had been in the church for 25 years and no one had ever run, nor had anyone been injured. Therefore, the Court was not persuaded "that she could or should have known or understood that she was incurring such a risk as, for example, in Schofield v. The Continental Insurance Co., 330 So.2d 376 (La.App.1976), where the spectator at a Zulu parade at Mardi Gras was hit by a coconut thrown from a float."

Next time you're in church and the preacher invites trotting, either sit down or keep your eyes open.

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