Foul Ball Breaks Windshield - Who Pays?

[AirWalke]

Sorry, you are not going to want to hear this...

The person who hit the ball (or his Gaurdians are responsible)... and yes your homeowners will cover it but dedeuctable is usally high...

Have had this happen to me, with my son on a baseball situation (Homerun made it easier) and myself hitting a car with a golfball...

It Sucks...


You can refuse, they can sue and then it will cost you even more...

But iccyfan has a case, there's no way the guy can prove his son's ball hit the windshield. It could've been any foul ball. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried going up to another kid before his and demanding to speak with his parents, only to get the bird from them.

 

[Mr Janny]

I think it all boils down to a reasonable expectation of risk. If you park your car at the ballpark it is reasonable to assume that your car might get hit by a foul ball. Just the same, if you go ice fishing and park your car on an ice covered lake, it is reasonable to assume that your vehicle might fall through the ice.
I'm not sure how the law looks at it, but logic would suggest that you are in the right.

 

[brianhos]

Sorry, you are not going to want to hear this...

The person who hit the ball (or his Gaurdians are responsible)... and yes your homeowners will cover it but dedeuctable is usally high...

Have had this happen to me, with my son on a baseball situation (Homerun made it easier) and myself hitting a car with a golfball...

It Sucks...


You can refuse, they can sue and then it will cost you even more...

You got some bad advice. Did you go to court? In small claims court it will not cost you anything. It would also teach your son to stick up for himself and not let people try and con him.

 

[JRE1975]

First of all, I would be pissed at your agent for not answering your question about whether you were responsible.

It was many years ago, but in a similar situation, I was the guy with the broken window, and it was paid for by my insurance under the comprehensive coverage. My agent told me at the time that it was a hazzard of parking in a spot where there was a reasonable expectation that baseballs could be hit in the area.

If you go to Principal Park and park in the season ticket parking area and a foul ball hits your car, I am sure the Cubs would not be responsible because there is a disclaimer on the parking pass. Look around the park and there are probably signs with the same disclaimer.

Tell the guy your agent says you are not responsible and have him call his insurance agent!

 

[brianhos]

. Sometimes people like this like to lean on you to contribute to it by saying things like "you don't want your kid to have to testify do you? my lawyer will shred him." If he takes you to small claims, you post here and I'm sure the people here, including a couple of us lawyers will help you prepare to destroy this moron. this guy will regret messing with the cyclone community.

Make him take you to small claims court. If he hires a lawyer it will cost him even more than the window did, if you represent yourself, you can laugh at him that he paid for a lawyer. Even if he wins, you win too!

 

[cytheguy]

Ask the league if there's any sort of policy in place about damage to vehicles or other property as a result of play on the field (foul balls, etc.).

Brainhos, I like your advice to ask the guy to "prove" it was his son's foul ball. Unfortunately, by the sounds of it, there's already been admission of guilt (calling insurance companies, discussing it after the game, etc.). In court, they could easily bring that up as an admission of guilt. Now, had the dad said "you can't prove it was my son's foul ball" from the get go, then it would be a different story.

In this case, the car owner should take his lumps and chalk it up to stupidity. Pay for the damage himself and never park near the action again.

Reminds me of a funny story. Last year in West Des Moines my daughter had a softball game. One of the fields has a parking lot right next to it. Of course, the first 5 or 6 spaces near the field are always empty because of the risk involved with foul balls. But that didn't bother Mr. and Mrs. Brand New Mercedes couple. They came rolling up to the field in their new convertible Mercedes, showing off of course, and pulled into the space nearest to the field. Anyone want to guess what happened? You got it! They get out and walk to the stands and no more than 30 seconds later a girl fouls one off and "BANG" right into the passenger side door. Left a nice little dent.

In that case, they were visibly upset with themselves, but didn't go after the parents of the batter. I recall the wife saying, "that'll teach us."

I guess it all depends on the person. Good luck.

 

[SuperCy]

Isn't any accident that occurs in a parking lot considering a "no fault" accident? If his car is in that lot, it should be equally his fault, and he should pay for his own repair. I would not admit to anything, I am not even really sure if that was a baseball that hit it. It could very well be the hale-bopp comet that hit your SUV.

Actually, that's a misconception. The parking lot is private property, but fault can be placed. In Iowa if a person is found to be 50% or more at fault then the party that is lesser at fault may be reimburesed for their portion of the claim.

For example, car one pulls out of their spot and hits another car as they are driving by. The insurance companies agree that car one is 80% at fault. The comapny that represents car number 2 can go to the company for car one and receive 80% of their damages back.

Parkinig lots still have rules. They are not written out like rules of the road through the DOT. Most of them are just common sense. Then again, if people used common sense I wouldn't have a job.

 

[coachdags]

You got some bad advice. Did you go to court? In small claims court it will not cost you anything. It would also teach your son to stick up for himself and not let people try and con him.

Been thru it guys....If they can prove that your ball hit the car, you are responsible....Sorry

Did one the hard way...small claims and lost and had to pay extrs fees, court costs...

The golf ball did the easy way and just bit the bullit....it SUCKS!

but them are the rules, and usually your deduct is so high its cheaper to pay it out of pocket so your insurance rates do not rise...

 

[cybsball20]

Now I'm just waiting for the day that someone holds up a game and makes everyone move their cars to avoid hitting one with a foul ball, is that what they want?

 

[SuperCy]

True Story.

When I was in high school I threw the discuss. We had a meet in Van Meter. Like most small towns, their discuss throw was in center field of the baseball diamond. Open up some gates where the cement slab is and there you go. Anyway, the judge for the event thought it smart to park his car right along the fence line, next to the slab.

As you know, when you throw the discuss most people spin and then let go.
Well, one kid gets up there and does his spin. Needless to say, he's a little wild. Somehow, when he let go he was facing 90 degrees of where he needed to be. So, the discuss went straight up in the air and to the back, right along the fence line. When it came down it didn't come down flat. It came down with the edge facing down. Right into the area between the front hood and grille. The discuss tore up the fiberglass and stuck there.

It might have been one of the funniest things I ever saw. All the kids were laughing, but the judge was a little more than mad.

 

[CyPlainsDrifter]

Tell him to take you to court and to PROVE that your son's shot was the one that caused it. If you park near a ball park, you are taking some risk.

 

[price26]

That is a hard call. I've only seen one windshield broken before by a baseball/softball, and that was during a softball game where a guy parked right behind the outfield fence, didn't take long after that for us to all go move our cars.

But as far as I know he paid for it, he was actually playing in the game and wasn't the person who hit it, but he knew that was a dumb place to park, and I think we had already hit 10+ home runs before that happened.

 

[cloneluke80]

What if you get hit by a rock flung up from someone's vehicle?

I had that happen and it cost me $220 to replace the windshield.

I sucked it up and paid it. No insurance, just paid it.

This owner of the SUV is a baby and needs to have larger problems in life. I would tell him that.

 

[cycloneworld]

I agree with others...tell him you aren't paying and make him take you to small claims court. And if by some stupid chance he wins, turn around and sue the pitchers parents for pitching the ball. And then sue the little league for scheduling your game that day. And then sue the park for putting parking that close to the diamond. Because if this moron "wins" then you should be able to win all of those cases.

How can he prove that your son's foul ball hit his SUV? Does he have video proof? I doubt it. So really, he has no other proof. And just because you called your insurance company asking the question isn't admitting guilt by any means, you are just looking into the situation.

 

[SuperCy]

What if you get hit by a rock flung up from someone's vehicle?

I had that happen and it cost me $220 to replace the windshield.

I sucked it up and paid it. No insurance, just paid it.

This owner of the SUV is a baby and needs to have larger problems in life. I would tell him that.

If a car is struck by a rock it is considered a hazard of the road. There is no liability assigned to it. It's just one of things that happen and can be reasonably expected. You should never have to pay for anyone else's windshield and vice versa.

 

[psycln11]

I used to manage a fleet of trucks that hauled feed and grain on gravel roads. Every once in a while, they would throw a rock at the wrong time when meeting a car going the other way. When they called, I usually just paid for the windshield to keep the good name, but I was told we were not liable for breaking their windshield. I would say oncoming trucks would be a lot more liable then a baseball player.

I used to work for the County. When people would call in saying one of our snow plows/dump trucks through a rock damaging their car, they had to provide the specific truck number/license number before we would pay the claim.

 

[ICCYFAN]

Ask the league if there's any sort of policy in place about damage to vehicles or other property as a result of play on the field (foul balls, etc.).

Brainhos, I like your advice to ask the guy to "prove" it was his son's foul ball. Unfortunately, by the sounds of it, there's already been admission of guilt (calling insurance companies, discussing it after the game, etc.). In court, they could easily bring that up as an admission of guilt. Now, had the dad said "you can't prove it was my son's foul ball" from the get go, then it would be a different story.

It was a four-team round-robin tournament taking place on two fields. The auto owner was at the other field so he didn't see it. I was coaching third base so I didn't see it. I don't know who told him it was my son's foul ball (one of the fans in attendence, I presume), but I played it clean and gave him my name and phone number. Honestly, the timing of the approach caught me off-guard and it didn't occur to me to question which foul ball did the damage at the time. I thought of that later. I certainly don't think anything I've done can be interpretted as an admission of guilt...

I'm less than thrilled with the advice given by my insurance agent, so much so that I plan to move the policy when it comes up in November. My comment to him was; "no claims and no late pay's for eight plus years - if my agent would allow the company to surcharge me for something this stupid without an epic battle - I must have the wrong insurance agent!" :growl5cj:

Thanks for all the advice and support! While I don't like to hear what CoachDags has to say, it's the kind of stuff I need to know when formulating my response. As for the advice given by the claims adjustor, I don't want to turn it in as a claim because I don't see where Allied has much incentive to decline it; they'll pay to get the nuissance claim out of their system and get it back from me via "surcharges". Am I wrong?

Lastly, I had no intention of retaining an attorney to represent me. Do people do that for $500 in small claims court? I'm more than capable of presenting this case; it's pretty simple at face value.

Thanks to all who've contributed! Keep them coming if you've had a similar experience which might shed light on my situation...

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

I used to work for the County. When people would call in saying one of our snow plows/dump trucks through a rock damaging their car, they had to provide the specific truck number/license number before we would pay the claim.

The only reason we paid for them because a lot of the times, the windshield that was broke was one of our customers, or a potential one so we did it to preserve a good image in the community. I think it only happened 2 times in the 7 yrs I was there.

 

[ISUFan22]

I'm with the majority - he can't prove within a reasonable doubt it was your son's ball - he as no case.

I'd venture to guess if the guy was a bit more polite about this and proposed say - a 50/50 solution - you'd be more receptive to it. But, he isn't. And even then, I think it's 100% his responsibility.

To me, this seems like the silly McDonalds hot coffee case. Sadly, that idiot won.

 

[Mr Janny]

This isn't the same thing, but it's on the same subject.

About five years ago, I worked for a small company in Ames. My boss was the owner, and one night he asked me if he could borrow my truck for the evening. He had to move some leaves, or branches or something, and he didn't have a vehicle that could do it. I said ok, and we traded vehicles. The next morning, when I arrived at work, I went up to my boss and gave him the keys to his vehicle. He said thanks and handed me my keys. Then, I went back out to my truck to move it to a different parking spot, and much to my surprise, the entire windshield was cracked. Not just a single crack, but spiderwebbed everywhere.
I went back inside and asked my boss what had happened. And he totally played dumb! He was like, "what are you talking about?" I told him that the windshield was destroyed, and he tried to play it off like it must have been that way when I gave it to him. I tried not to get mad, so all i could do was laugh. We went outside, and I showed him. Finally he admitted that it must have happened on his way to work that morning, but he didn't notice because it was dark. (yeah right) He said he remembered something hitting the windshield. It was at this point that I noticed all the feathers in my truck bed. I said that it looked like he hit a pheasant. He denied this, but suggested instead that perhaps someone in the car ahead of him might have "thrown" a pheasant at him. I'm not kidding. This was his story and he wouldn't budge on it. He wanted me to call my insurance company and tell them that someone had thrown a bird at my windshield, and to leave his name out of it. What a cheapskate. Finally, I just told him no. I said that I wasn't going to turn it in on my insurance. I got the winshield fixed and just gave him the bill. He paid it, but he never admitted that he had done anything wrong. I'm so glad I quit that job.