By: William Goldberg; Lerch, Early & Brewer (Maryland, USA)
To the great relief of defendants and liability insurers covering claims in Maryland, the Maryland Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) recently declined to abrogate the common law doctrine of contributory negligence and replace it with a comparative negligence regime. Maryland thus remains one of only five jurisdictions (the others are Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia) in which a plaintiff’s own negligence, however minor, completely bars recovery.
In Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, the plaintiff was a 20-year-old soccer player who was severely injured when he jumped up and grabbed the goalpost crossbar after scoring a goal during practice. The goalpost was not anchored to the ground and it fell backward as the plaintiff held onto the crossbar, causing the weight of the crossbar to hit his face, injuring him severely. At trial, the plaintiff’s attorney requested a jury instruction on comparative negligence but the trial judge declined and instead instructed the jury on contributory negligence. The jury concluded that while the defendant’s negligence caused the plaintiff’s injuries, the plaintiff was also negligent and that his negligence caused, in part, his own injuries. That finding, under Maryland law, barred the plaintiff from any recovery.
