UPDATED 6 P.M. : HELENA - A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game.
The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game in Helena in 2003.
The Lewis and Clark County District Court jury awarded a total of $850,000 in damages against Hillerich & Bradsby for failure to place warnings on the product.
The teen's mother, Debbie Patch, was stunned by the verdict. The family rejoiced and cried as the verdict was read.
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"We never expected it," she said. "We just hoped we could get the truth out for more people to see."
Patch said she hopes the decision will make more people aware of the dangers associated with aluminum bats and that more youth leagues will switch to using wooden bats.
"We just want to save someone else's life," Patch said.
The attorneys for Hillerich & Bradsby declined to comment. They had argued that accidents are bound to happen in baseball games and there's nothing inherently unsafe about aluminum baseball bats.
Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association's Don't Take My Bat Away Program, a sporting goods trade group, said that while Patch's death is tragic, the exact same thing could have happened with a wooden bat.
Curt Drake, one of the family's attorneys, said the jury arrived at the total by awarding $792,000 to Brandon Patch for his lost earnings and pain and suffering, an amount that goes to his estate. The family was awarded $58,000 for their pain and suffering and damages.
Judge Kathy Seeley is still considering punitive damages in the case.
In the verdict Wednesday, the jury also decided the product was not defective. Drake said that decision was not significant, since the jury found it posed a threat without an adequate warning label.
The attorney said the family's victory will not likely change the way aluminum bats are used, but that it could help give momentum to efforts calling for a switch to wood bats in youth baseball.
Metal bats came into vogue in amateur sports in the 1970s, but professional baseball still uses wood bats. Some amateur teams have decided to switch in recent years, in part due to Patch's death.
"We should go back to the way baseball is supposed to be played, the way professional baseball is played," said Debbie Patch.
Brandon Patch was pitching for the Miles City Mavericks when the ball ricocheted off his head, eventually falling behind first base after traveling as high as 50 feet in the air.
Patch went into convulsions on the field in front of a horrified crowd and died within hours from his injury.
UPDATED 5 P.M. : A Helena jury today sided with the parents of former Miles City Legion baseball player Brandon Patch in a civil suit over the player's death during a 2003 game in Helena.
Debbie Patch says she hopes the decision will make more people aware of the dangers associated with aluminum bats and that more youth leagues will switch to using wooden bats.
The attorneys for Hillerich & Bradsby declined comment.
INITIAL REPORT:
HELENA - A Helena jury has begun deliberations in the case of a Miles City mother who sued the maker of aluminum Louisville Slugger bats after her son was struck in the head with a baseball and died.
Debbie Patch alleges Hillerich & Bradsby, the makers of the bats, manufacture an unreasonably dangerous product. Attorney Joe White argued the bat has a defective design because it can hit a ball so fast you can't see it.
Attorneys for the manufacturer argued the 2003 death of Brandon Patch was an unfortunate accident that could have occurred using any of several different bats.
The jury deliberated for five hours on Tuesday and resumed deliberations Wednesday morning.
