LOS ANGELES — In a decision that might impact many declares by professionalathletes who takelegalactionagainst sports companies for head injuries, a Los Angeles jury on Tuesday turneddown a suit lookingfor $55 million by the widow of a previous USC football gamer who stated the NCAA stoppedworking to secure him from duplicated head injury that led to his death.
Matthew Gee, a linebacker on the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning team, withstood an approximated 6,000 strikes as a college professionalathlete, legalrepresentatives for his widow stated. They declared these effects triggered long-term brain damage, and led to drug and alcohol abuse that ultimately eliminated him at age 49.
The NCAA, the governing body of U.S. college sports, stated it had absolutelynothing to do with Gee’s death, which it stated was a unexpected heart arrest brought on by withouttreatment highbloodpressure and severe drug toxicity. A legalrepresentative for the NCAA stated Gee suffered from lotsof other health issues not associated to football, such as liver cirrhosis, that would have ultimately eliminated him.
Hundreds of wrongful death and individual injury suits haveactually been brought by college football gamers versus the NCAA in the past years, however Gee’s was the veryfirst one to reach a jury. The fit declared that strikes to the head led to persistent distressing encephalopathy, a degenerative brain illness recognized by the acronym CTE.
Judge Terry Green informed jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court they “made history” in the veryfirst case of its kind.
The outcome might serve as a care to attorneys preparing to take comparable cases to trial, stated Dan Lust, a sports law lawyer and teacher at New York Law School. Before the trial, he had stated that a Gee success might have opened the floodgates versus the NCAA. Now, the NCAA has more utilize in future cases.
“Any complainant’s lawyer is going to believe twotimes previously putting all the chips in the table and pressing them to the middle and stating, ‘We’re going to take our case to trial and see what