Thursday, July 11, 2013

Courting Stage Combat: Legal Liabilities

Anytime you engage in strenuous activity, there is a chance of getting hurt. This risk increases when the activity includes close physical contact between two individuals and/or weaponry in the mix. You’ve already heard me stress the importance of hiring a Fight Director to avoid injury.  However, it is also important to take great care whenever you are involved in any sort of stunt work.  This may sound like a, “duh” statement, but you’d be surprised how often personal injury and negligence cases arise after a stunt performer on stage is injured because someone cut corners or simply was not being cautious. Still don’t believe me? Let’s look at three court cases involving personal injury lawsuits by stage combatants or stunt performers.


The first case is Texas A&M University vs. Paul A. Bishop. Although the case was argued in September of 2004, the actual incident had occurred ten years earlier. The plaintiff, Paul A. Bishop, argued that he had been stabbed in the chest while performing a fight scene in the school’s drama club production of Hamlet.  The defendant, Texas A&M University, rebutted that no theatre program was offered at the university and any participation in the drama club was voluntary. Additionally, the director for the production was a third party who was not hired by the university but by the drama club participants themselves. In the end, the judge dismissed the case, ruling that the school was not liable.
This case brings up many different issues. The first is that the director either didn’t know what he was doing, was trying to save money, or some combination of the two. Proof of this can be seen by the fact that the director did not hire any sort of fight coordinator. Instead, this third party director decided to ask his wife to sew a chest plate into Paul Bishop’s costume to protect against the impact of the dagger. He took no other precautions. Additionally, the director chose to use a real knife instead of one made specifically for stage combat. Had the director hired a fight coordinator, he would have known the serious risk involved with both of these decisions and would have advised the director accordingly. Unfortunately, such mistakes often result in significant injury. In this particular case, the director was fortunate that the student didn’t die from his injuries. Otherwise he might have been facing a manslaughter investigation.
The second case is somewhat different. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the cursed “Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark” Broadway Musical (and if you haven’t, go ahead and Google it because you’ll likely be shocked at what you find). This musical is considered the most expensive production ever to grace the Broadway stage. Nevertheless, multiple performers in this production have been injured. Richard Kobak is the first of the performers to take legal action. Richard was the stunt performer for Spiderman. He alleges that, “…he sustained two herniated discs, a concussion, whiplash and holes in both knees as a result of errors by crew members in charge of programming the aerial rigging computer.” (Healey) Kobak backs up his claim by explaining that, throughout the duration of one single show, he made 70 hard landings (Kennedy). With 6 performances a week, that equates to 1680 landings a month. The court ordered the producers to provide all documentation concerning rigging issue to Mr. Kobak. The producers also found themselves facing several other lawsuits alleging similar injuries after this case was filed.
The producers’ negligence in this case is grounded in the fact that they didn’t adequately concern themselves with performer safety.  They and their actors are now paying the consequences. Had the producers taken the time and precautions necessary to protect their performers, many of these liability issues would not have developed.
The last case is an example of how, even when care is taken, there will always be accidents.  Brian Marucheau was taking an elective class in stage combat at Suffolk County Community College. He fell and twisted his ankle. In 2005, he instituted the case of Brian Marucheau v. Suffolk County Community College seeking compensation for his injuries. The Court ruled, “…that the plaintiff voluntarily participated in this activity and assumed the risks associated with it.” (Brian Marucheau v. Suffolk County Community College) Based on Common Law, the case was dismissed.  By taking a stage combat class, where students would obviously be participating in the dramatization of actual combat, Brian assumed the risks one could reasonably anticipate would be involved in the activity. One way the school could have protected itself from this lawsuit would have been to document the fact that it had disclosed the potential for injury to Brian and to obtain his written agreement to assume that risk.  
In the performance industries, when mimicking actual violence, there is always a chance of injury. As many of you may be aware, I am planning to create a non-profit organization where I will be working closely with terminally ill children and teaching them the performing arts. This makes the risk of injury or death incredibly high. To protect myself from extreme litigation, I will need to take every reasonable precaution to give due consideration to the limitations of the children with whom I am working.  Additionally, it will be necessary to disclose fully the risks and to create a solid liability waiver for all participants in my program. While this will not guarantee that I won’t end up in court, it will alert the participants and their guardians to an awareness of the risks involved in performing.  When working in this type of environment, one must be as precautionary as possible.  


References:

Brian Marucheau v. Suffolk County Community College. U.S. (2005) Retrieved July 9,2013 from http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1362065859678305126&q=%22stage+combat%22+&hl=en&as_sdt=2,10

KENNEDY, M. (n.d.). Richard Kobak, 'Spider-Man' stuntman, Gets a boost from court Judge. Breaking news and opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/richard-kobak-spider-man-lawsuit_n_1525725.html

STANLEY, A. (n.d.). 'Spider-Man' Stuntman, Citing Injuries, Starts Legal Action - NYTimes.com. Culture and the Arts - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/spider-man-stuntman-citing-injuries-starts-legal-action/


Texas A&M University v. Bishop. U.S. No. 03-0448 Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/his

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