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Day v. Ouachita Parish School Board8/8/2002
Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, La. C.C.P.
KOSTELKA, J., dissents with written reasons.
The defendants, Ouachita Parish School Board and John Green, appeal a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, Amy Day and her son, Morgan Day. The trial court found that defendants were liable for a back injury sustained by Morgan Day and awarded damages for his injuries. For the following reasons, we affirm and remand.
FACTS
In August 1997, Morgan Day ("Morgan") was a freshman at West Monroe High School ("WMHS"). As a member of the freshman football team, Morgan was required to participate in a weight training class held during school hours. The weight lifting program was directed by the school's strength coach, John Sanders, who was assisted by coach John Green ("Green") and two other coaches. The sixty student players were divided into four or five lifting groups, each of which was supervised by one of the coaches. Several senior students on the team assisted the coaches with supervising and instructing the class participants.
In October 1997, Morgan injured his back while lifting weights in class. The next day, Morgan played in a freshman football game even though his back was bothering him. On October 7, 1997, Morgan sought treatment from Dr. Douglas Brown, an orthopedic surgeon. After an examination, Dr. Brown diagnosed Morgan's injury as lumbar strain and a dehydrated L-5 disc. Dr. Brown provided Morgan with a written medical excuse, which stated "(1) No football for 1 week (2) No weightlifting, squats or power cleans. Diagnosis-lumbar strain and injured L-5 disc."
Morgan presented the medical excuse to George Bell, the freshman coach, and the note was posted on a bulletin board in Coach Sanders' office. Coaches Bell, Green and Sanders testified that they interpreted the doctor's note to mean that Morgan could not participate in football or weightlifting for a period of one week. Morgan and his mother, Amy Day, testified that they interpreted the note to mean that he could not play football for one week and could not lift weights for an indefinite time period.
According to Morgan, who did not recall the exact date, at some point after the medical excuse was posted he was observing in class but not lifting weights, when Green instructed him to perform a "dumbbell power clean push press." When Morgan reminded Green that he was medically excused, the coach insisted that the lift was an upper body exercise and would not affect his lower back. After performing several repetitions of the lift, Morgan felt severe pain in his back and needed to lie down on a mat.
On October 21, 1997, Morgan again saw Dr. Brown with a complaint of back pain. Dr. Brown ordered an MRI of the lumbar spine that indicated a disc protrusion between the fourth and fifth vertebrae. Dr. Brown diagnosed Morgan with a herniated disc at the L-4 level and issued another medical excuse that prohibited him from all weightlifting and football activities until further notice. Morgan was referred to Dr. Ronald Ellis, an anesthesiologist specializing in pain management. Dr. Ellis recommended a series of epidural steroid injections, which were declined by Morgan and his mother. Morgan went to see two other orthopedic surgeons, Doctors David Trettin and Don Burt, and a neurosurgeon, Dr. Jose Bermudez.
Morgan next visited Dr. Brown in August 2000. Dr. Brown found that Morgan continued to experience lower back tenderness with a mild muscle spasm. Another MRI reflected, as in the previous study, a central disc protrusion at the L-4 level.
After the disc injury, Morgan was unable to play high s
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