January 16, 2025

Gee v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (Dec. 24, 2024, B327691) __Cal.App.4th__ (2024 WL 5319287)

Plaintiff was a college football player from 1988 to 1992. Plaintiff died at the age of 49. After his death, it was determined plaintiff had Stage II Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Plaintiff’s widow filed a wrongful death action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) arguing that the NCAA negligently failed to take reasonable steps which would have reduced the risk of contracting CTE. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the NCAA. Plaintiff’s widow appealed, arguing the trial court erred in finding the assumption of risk doctrine applied.
The Court of Appeal found the assumption of risk doctrine applied and affirmed the judgment. The court reasoned that when examining a sport’s inherent risks, it does not evaluate whether a particular injury is an inherent risk but rather determines whether the activity causing the injury was inherent to the sport. Therefore, the court concluded it need not find that CTE was an inherent risk for the doctrine to apply, because hits to the head were an inherent risk of football.