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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