A woman who was hit in the face by a foul ball at the Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Field is suing Major League Baseball, a report says.
The incident occurred on August 6, 2014, during batting practice at the park. Dana Morelli, a 47-year-old New Jersey woman, was struck in the face and says she suffered an orbital fracture of her left eye socket, as well as nerve damage and damage to her iris. Now, she wants MLB to pay the tab for her medical expenses, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
In her lawsuit, the woman said she was just sitting down into her second row seat behind third base when the ball slammed into her face. Morelli says she was at the park with her fiancée and his son.
Morelli also claimed she was forced to stay in a darkened room for several days after she was hit before she could even travel home.
The woman’s legal team said the Milwaukee Brewers ran afoul of Wisconsin’s “safe place statute,” a law requiring property owners to do everything “reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare” of the public and employees alike.
“People should be more protected during batting practice since there is no game to even watch,” said Michael Sperling, Morelli’s Milwaukee attorney, said in his filing. “Whatever they put up was clearly insufficient to protect my client.”
Not many of these lawsuits have come down in favor of injured fans, however, so this case may have an uphill battle against precedent.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.