$237,535 Personal Injury Verdict Upheld in Action Brought Against Sales Barn By Auction Visitor

Overview

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in her personal injury action against the owner of an Iowa sales barn. The plaintiff was stepped on by a horse and severely injured while attending a draft horse auction. In upholding the verdict, the court interpreted Iowa’s Domesticated Animal Activity Sponsor statute to find that the negligence action was allowed under Iowa Code § 673.2(4) because the plaintiff’s injuries occurred “in a place designated by an animal activity sponsor as a place for persons who are not participants to be present.”

Facts

The plaintiff and her husband attended a horse auction at a sales barn owned by the Waverly Sales Company (Waverly), paying for reserved seating in a bleacher area. During the sale, the plaintiff left her seat to go to the restroom. To access the restroom, she had to pass through an alley connecting the arena floor to the stables. While returning to her seat, the plaintiff tripped in the alley and was severely injured when a startled horse passing through the alley stepped on her.

The plaintiff and her husband filed a negligence action against Waverly, alleging that it had failed to provide a safe exit for spectators, that it had created a dangerous condition on the premises through the layout of the barn, and that it had negligently allowed an overhead door to open during the sale, thus startling the horses passing through the alley.

Court Action

Waverly filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Iowa Code §673.2, which precludes liability for a “domesticated animal activity sponsor” when the damages result from the “inherent risks of a domesticated animal activity,” exempted it from liability. The district court, however, found that the exception in §673.2(4) applied. Section §673.2(4) specifically allows a negligence action to proceed against a domesticated animal activity sponsor when the injury was caused by domesticated animal activity which “occurs in a place designated or intended by an animal activity sponsor as a place for persons who are not participants to be present.” After the jury found Waverly to be 65% at fault and the plaintiff to be 35% at fault, the district court entered a judgment against Waverly in the amount of $237,535.

On appeal, the Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court found that the question of whether the exception applied did not turn on whether the plaintiff was a “person who was not a participant,” but instead on the character of the location where the injury occurred. The court found that the evidence demonstrated that Waverly did not intend to limit its sales barn, bleacher area, or alley restroom access to only bidders or “participants” in the auction.  Instead, members of the general public, including families with children, were welcomed by Waverly to the horse auctions. Although the presence of spectators was ancillary to Waverly’s profitability, the court found that the Iowa legislature had not indicated that profitability was to be a consideration. Instead, the legislature had intended that domesticated animal activity sponsors (like Waverly) could be held responsible for injuries occurring in areas where spectators and non-participants are welcomed.