A jury should decide whether a health club trainer was responsible for a severe spinal injury a patron suffered while performing a move known as a “Smith squat,” or the patron herself assumed the risk of the exercise, the Appellate Division, Third Department, has ruled. The panel split 3-2 in reversing a ruling by Albany Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine (See Profile), who had granted summary judgment to the trainer and the health club.
The majority in Layden v. Plante, 514632, said the application of the assumption of risk doctrine is generally a question of fact to be resolved by a jury. “We find triable issues of fact presented as to whether the trainer’s actions ‘unreasonably heightened the risks to which [plaintiff] was exposed’ beyond those usually inherent in weight lifting,” Justice Elizabeth Garry (See Profile) wrote for the panel.
