Basketball and Fatal Falls

Tragedies often end in lawsuits. In November of 2010 a 2-year-old boy fell from a third-floor luxury box at the Staples Center and died. The luxury box is like a balcony overlooking the arena. A glass safety partition provides a barrier between spectators and the ledge.

The toddler and his family had attended a Los Angeles Lakers game at the Staples Center, and the family had been taking photos by the partition. As the family gathered around the camera to review the photos, the boy climbed over the glass barrier and fell some 30 feet. He was taken to the hospital, where he died the following morning.

The boy’s parents, Henry Tang and Homaimi Nguyen, filed a lawsuit against the owner and operator of the Staples Center, claiming that they were responsible for the boy’s death. A Superior Court judge recently dismissed the suit, saying there is no evidence the owner or operator were responsible. The Tang family plans to appeal.

For more on this story, see this article.