## Facts

- Donne Castello was playing in a softball game on a municipal field controlled by the Incorporated Village of Freeport.
- Castello was an experienced softball player and a right-handed batter.
- Over the course of the game, the earth at the third-base side of home plate was being dug out by use and foot traffic, which caused a corner of home plate (the corner facing third base) to protrude above the surrounding ground.
- Castello batted several times during the game and noticed the dug-out condition and the protruding corner of the plate.
- Castello had actually stood in the “ditch” next to the protruding corner during the game.
- In the eighth inning, Castello slid head-first into home plate while attempting to score.
- His shoulder jammed against the protruding corner of home plate, causing injury.
- Castello sued the Incorporated Village of Freeport (and related municipal defendants) for negligent maintenance of the field and sought damages.
- The trial court granted the Village of Freeport’s motion to dismiss the complaint as against it; after reargument, the court left that dismissal in place.
- Castello appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a softball player’s negligence claim is barred where the player knew that the third-base side of home plate was dug out and a corner of the plate protruded, yet voluntarily continued to play and later slid into the plate and was injured.
2. Whether the protruding home-plate condition, formed during play and plainly observable, amounted to a hidden hazard or an added danger beyond the ordinary risks of softball.

## Decision

- The Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the order dismissing the complaint against the Incorporated Village of Freeport, with costs.
- The court held that the primary assumption-of-risk doctrine applied because the risk of contacting the protruding corner was known, obvious, and appreciated by Castello.
- The court concluded the condition was not hidden, given Castello’s repeated contact with the area and his admitted awareness of the dug-out third-base side of home plate.

## Legal Principles

- A voluntary participant in a sporting activity is treated as consenting to injury-causing events that are known, apparent, or reasonably foreseeable results of participation (as stated in Turcotte v. Fell).
- When the risks of the activity are fully understood or perfectly obvious, the defendant has satisfied its limited duty to the participant, and the participant’s claim is barred.
- In sports-injury cases, liability generally requires proof that the defendant created or allowed a hidden hazard or imposed risks beyond those commonly appreciated in the activity.
- A participant’s experience and actual knowledge of the specific condition are central to whether the risk was assumed as a matter of law and may support summary judgment.

## Conclusion

Because Castello, an experienced player, saw and understood that the third-base side of home plate was dug out and that a corner of the plate protruded, the court held that he voluntarily accepted the risk of injury from sliding into that open and obvious condition; accordingly, the dismissal of his negligence claim against the Incorporated Village of Freeport was affirmed.


Castello v. County of Nassau, 636 N.Y.S.2d 817 (1996)