## Facts

- Ohio State University and Ashland University played an intercollegiate lacrosse game at Ashland on May 1, 1982.
- After an OSU player scored, Ashland player William D. Kynast allegedly checked him from behind and taunted him.
- OSU player Brian K. Hanson intervened by grabbing Kynast in a bear hug.
- Kynast twisted and threw Hanson, who landed on his head/neck and suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury causing paralysis.
- Hanson sued Kynast and Ashland University, asserting (1) vicarious liability based on Kynast’s alleged agency status and (2) direct negligence for inadequate emergency medical arrangements, including no ambulance on site and obstructed access to the field.
- Evidence showed Kynast attended Ashland by choice, received no athletic scholarship or compensation, purchased his own equipment, and played as part of his educational experience, while receiving coaching instructions limited to practices and games.

## Issues

1. Whether an unpaid, voluntary student-athlete is an agent/servant of a university such that the university is vicariously liable under respondeat superior for injuries the athlete inflicts during a game.
2. Whether the university was directly negligent for alleged deficiencies in emergency medical arrangements, and whether any delay in treatment proximately caused additional injury.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Ohio reversed the court of appeals and reinstated summary judgment for Ashland University.
- The court held Kynast was not Ashland’s agent while playing lacrosse; therefore, Ashland had no respondeat superior liability for his alleged torts.
- The court held Ashland was not liable for negligent emergency arrangements because the evidence did not show the alleged delay in treatment aggravated Hanson’s injury.

## Legal Principles

- A principal–agent or master–servant relationship exists only when one party has the right to control another’s actions and those actions are directed to achieving the former’s objective.
- Respondeat superior requires proof (1) of a principal–agent relationship and (2) tortious conduct within the scope of that agency.
- A student who voluntarily attends a university, receives no scholarship or compensation, buys his own equipment, and participates in athletics as part of his educational experience is not the university’s agent merely because he receives coaching instructions for play.
- Negligence liability requires proximate causation; absent evidence that an alleged delay in medical care worsened the injury, an institution is not liable for claimed deficiencies in emergency response.

## Conclusion

The Ohio Supreme Court held that an unpaid, voluntary student-athlete was not a university agent for purposes of respondeat superior and that the university was not directly liable for alleged emergency-care shortcomings where the record showed the paralysis occurred at impact and was not aggravated by any treatment delay.


Hanson v. Kynast, 24 Ohio St. 3d 171, 494 N.E.2d 1091 (Ohio 1986)