GALVESTON – A League City baseball facility and its general manager have formally responded to an August lawsuit filed after a male spectator was allegedly struck with a bat.
In their original answer filed into Tiffany Padgett and Zane Tucker’s suit on Sept. 20, Big League Dreams and Phillis N. Williford deny responsibility for the Aug. 6, 2016 incident.
As previously reported in The Southeast Texas Record, the plaintiffs explain that Tucker was watching a men’s slow-pitch softball game when after the contest, “one of the ballplayers or spectators picked up a bat, swung the bat, lost control of the bat, and allowed it to fly out of his hands.”
The bat purportedly struck Tucker “with a great force and violence in the face and head.” The person with the bat was believed to have been intoxicated.
According to the respondents, the unidentified individual’s conduct “was criminal in nature as it was done either intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, and it was the cause of the incident in question and resulting damages.”
They further assert that “the criminal acts and omissions of the unidentified John Doe equate to a new and independent cause,” arguing they have no control or right of control over the man.
Big League Dreams also answered a Harris County lawsuit alleging a female spectator was hit in the head by a baseball while watching her son compete in a youth tournament. Court records in Houston show that the claims in Rachel Teykl's suit were countered on Sept. 6.
The law firm Mehaffy Weber in Houston is representing the defendants.
Galveston County Court at Law No. 1 Cause No. CV-81596