A District of Columbia Superior Court jury has ordered the Wilson Sporting Goods Co. to pay $775,000 to a Major League Baseball umpire injured by a foul ball that knocked off his Wilson-made face mask.
Ed Hickox, who has since resumed his duties as an MLB umpire, suffered a concussion and several broken bones after a foul ball struck him in the jaw while he was umpiring a Washington Nationals' game at RFK Stadium on May 14, 2005. The protective face mask Hickox was wearing at the time flipped off of his head upon impact. The mask was given to Hickox for free by a Wilson representative.
Hickox sued Wilson, claiming the company was responsible not only because the mask failed to protect his face as advertised, but also because the company failed to tell Hickox that the company had not tested the mask with the same rigor they used to test hockey face masks, according to boxscorenews.com.
“An ordinary customer would expect the umpire's mask, built to protect the umpire's face from stray baseballs, not to harm Plaintiff when a baseball strikes the mask,” Hickox wrote in his complaint.
Wilson is expected to appeal.
