Homer Foster took his family (seven-year-old son Bart, nine-year-old daughter Lisa, and wife Marge) to see the New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball team. A colleague from the Southern New Hampshire University sport management department gave him four tickets to the game and told him to bring baseball gloves because the seats were in the first row behind the first base dugout. It was a rainy day, but the umpires decided to let the game be played. Only Homer and Marge had been to a baseball game before. Between the third and fourth innings, Bart volunteered to participate in a promotional event to run around the bases against the team mascot. Bart, in a state of confusion, turned around and ran into the mascot upon reaching second base, sustaining a concussion and a broken arm. Bart, being a tough kid, returned to his seat, put on his iPod, and watched the rest of the game. In the sixth inning, the mascot came over to see how Bart was doing, and then Bart and Lisa played with the mascot. While the visiting team was throwing the ball around between plays, and while Lisa and Bart were being distracted by the mascot, the shortstop accidentally threw the wet, slippery ball over the first baseman and into the stands, hitting Lisa in the face and breaking her nose. Homer finished his fifth beer, which he had just purchased from the same beer vendor, and immediately left with Bart, Lisa, and Marge to go to the hospital. In his rush to get to the hospital, he hit a school bus carrying Girl Scouts, seriously injuring the bus driver and two of the scouts. The bus driver was driving 10 miles per hour over the speed limit and his driver’s license was under suspension due to his recent conviction for operating a motor vehicle under the influence (alcohol related).

 

           Discuss the potential plaintiffs, defendants, and theories of liability and likely defenses as a result of these facts. Brief one of the possible lawsuits.