 |
| Ereck Plancher |
That didn't take very long. The jury in the Plancher family versus the UCF Athletic Association delibertated for about 5 hours Thursday night and came back with a verdict.
Guilty of negligence.
The family of fallen football player Ereck Plancher received $10 million dollars from the school's athletic athletic association after Plancher collapsed and died after a football practice in March of 2008. The Orange County (Orlando,Fl) medical examiner and three experts all testified that Plancher died from complications of sickle cell trait.
The defense argued that wasn't possible, but it appears the jury didn't believe them. The University's spokesman says they'll appeal the verdict. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Plancher family turned town a settlement offer and the University of Central Florida Athletic Association is also responsible for the family's nearly $1.5 million of court costs.
Read the full story from the Orlando Sentinel RIGHT HERE
While certainly this is a significant decision, it ended up not being the game changer that many thought it might be. It proved the UCF and the football program did not handle Plancher's situation correctly which is why the "Gross Negligence" claim was not applicable and there were not punitive damages. But there was no proof of a system that didn't provide for the athletes.
There were accusations of no water and no trainers being allowed were Plancher was working and that led to his death. Those accusation were not proven.
In the end, the family was, we believe, fairly compensated for their loss. The school was reprimanded and reminded they can do a better job monitoring the health and welfare of their athletes, and we were all reminded life is precious and sometimes unfortunate things happen.
We hope that the appeal stalls out and doesn't happen, the Plancher's receive their money and the school moves on.
Your TV Story wrap-up from MyFoxOrlando.com:
Here's the original Mark Fainaru-Wada investigation from the ESPN show "Outside The Lines..." it raises questions about the whole handling of the process by UCF
((HT: ESPN))
No comments:
Post a Comment