A jury in Florida has ordered United Parks to pay more than $5 million to the family of a 12-year-old who was injured during Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in 2022.
I do not routinely report on lawsuits here on Theme Park Insider, simply because so few of them ever go to trial, which prevents me from getting all the relevant information about an incident. In most cases, all we have is a plaintiff's accusations in a filing, with no response from the park. Since so many of those cases end in settlement or dismissal, we never get the full story. When cases settle, gag orders typically prevent either party from discussing the case. And when cases get dismissed, well, neither party usually wants to talk about that, either.
But a recent case in Florida did go to court, and its plaintiff's attorneys are now publicizing the results. A Hillsborough County jury decided last week that Busch Gardens owner United Parks is liable for $5,300,328 to compensate the 12-year-old for injuries he sustained after falling off a trampoline in the park's Stanleyville Theater.
The doors to the theater had not been locked, allowing the boy to enter and access an acrobatic trampoline on the stage, the lawsuit claimed. The lawsuit also claimed that the boy fell off the trampoline onto a metal object, lacerating his right kidney, among other injuries. The boy lost the use of his kidney.
The jury also found the boy's family partially responsible for the incident, which limited United Park's liability to 65% of what the jury determined were more than $8.1 million in damages.
"A young child will now have to endure renal protective measures for the rest of his life, limiting what he can eat, what sports he can play, and what medications he can take," Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan and attorney Paul Fulmer said in their press release.
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