Montreal hockey player left quadripelgic due to hit from behind awarded $8 million

[sureLoss]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/02/03...m-quadriplegic

At 16, Andrew Zaccardo was a talented hockey player, a fast skater and near the top of his league for goals scored while playing for the Midget AA Laval Patriotes.

Then 20 seconds into a game against the Royal de Montreal team, Ludovic Gauvreau-Beaupre approached Zaccardo from behind, and with his right arm raised to just below neck level, slammed him into the boards, jumping with both feet in the air as he hit him with full force.

Zaccardo never walked again.

Five years later, Zaccardo, now 21, has been awarded $8 million in damages -- what is believed to be the highest amount awarded for a sports-related injury in Canadian history.

In a decision handed down Monday, Superior Court judge Daniel Payette ruled that Gauvreau-Beaupre was at fault, and that even though hockey is a contact sport, such a catastrophic injury is not an inherent risk.

Zaccardo's lawyers, Stewart Kugler and Arthur Wechsler of Kugler, Kandestin, said the judgment, which orders both Gaudreau-Beaupre and the Chartis Insurance company to pay damages, will serve as a reminder to players that just because they're playing a sport that allows body contact doesn't mean they don't have to act responsibly.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Crazy. From the sounds of it the defendant did it deliberately.

But with the help of film footage taken by one of the Royal de Montreal parents, the judge concluded there was nothing accidental about it.

"Never did (Gauvreau-Beaupre) lose sight of Zaccardo or not know where he was. Yet he never tries to stop or attempts to avoid him, quite the contrary," Payette concludes.

Gauvreau-Beaupre's defence was that those types of hits are a common occurrence even if the rules forbid them. As such, Zaccardo assumed the risk of being checked from behind the minute he hit the ice.

[troutman]

16 years olds have insurance for this?

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by troutman

16 years olds have insurance for this?

I was thinking it was the league's insurance

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

I was thinking it was the league's insurance

Which means every league's premiums (and player fees) are about to skyrocket....

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Which means every league's premiums (and player fees) are about to skyrocket....

One psychotic and/or stupid ape ruins things for everyone else. I'm pretty sure I've read this story before.