What is a church's liabiity regarding an on-site accident?
Question Details: I am with a small rural church. Before a Sunday night church service, some of our kids, ages 7 to 16, were playing a friendly game of football. One of the teenagers went to catch the ball and hit another teenager in the mouth with with elbow. The result was a broken tooth that resulted in a root canal and crown. The cost of all this about $1,800. Is the church liable for this? Would it matter if the injured party was a church member or not?
From what you have written, if the broken tooth injury merely resulted from some teenagers playing catch with the football where a mere accident happened as a resuly then no one is liable for any damages. The playing of sports such as football places an inherent danger of one getting injured where there was a clear assumption of the risk of the activity by the participants.
