A judge has ruled that USC and a business professor will remain defendants in a former MBA student’s lawsuit in which she alleges she was severely injured performing a trapeze exercise in 2023 as part of an elective class.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Ellis heard arguments in plaintiff Jill Johnson’s case on July 22, took the case under submission and issued his ruling on Wednesday, denying a motion by USC and marketing professor Joseph Priester to dismiss the part of the case against those defendants. Ellis’ had indicated in his tentative ruling that he was poised to deny the dismissal motion.
Johnson also is suing the Santa Monica Trapeze School LLC. At the time of the accident, Johnson was 33 years old and weighed about 340 pounds.
The defense attorneys argued there were no triable issues and cited the defense of primary assumption of the risk. But in his final ruling, the judge said that was not a viable defense.
“Plaintiff had no reason to believe that, by enrolling in the course, she would be at risk of suffering an injury in a trapeze activity,” the judge wrote. “She did not assume that risk.”
The judge also said that even if the primary assumption of the risk doctrine was applicable in Johnson’s case, a jury should determine whether Priester was reckless when he allegedly told Johnson that she should take part in the trapeze exercise and that her weight would not be an issue.
As a student at the USC Marshall School of Business working toward an MBA, Johnson was required to take a number of elective units and decided to enrolled in the “Fostering Creativity” course taught by Priester. The goal of the trapeze lesson was to help students find their edge and overcome their fears, the suit states.
Johnson told the professor she was concerned about the school’s weight limit and whether she would be able to participate, but he replied, “You are in great shape, and the weight will not be an issue,” the suit states.
Priester knew that Johnson exceeded the 205-pound weight limit, but still encouraged her to participate, the suit states.
USC owed Johnson an obligation to not expose her to unnecessary risk and to supervise and approve the curriculum of its professors, but she suffered severe physical and emotional injuries, incurred medical costs and experienced past and future lost earnings, the suit alleges.
In a sworn declaration, Johnson said she looked at her left leg at the hospital and it was “completely dislocated, so it’s kind of spaghetti-like, flopped, and they tried to, like, set it back in place and it just fell back over again and I started crying.”
Asked if the professor required students to take the trapeze lesson, Johnson replied, “He did not use the exact language of `required.’ But he did not provide any alternative.”
USC lawyers contend that Johnson “assumed the risks inherent in the trapeze activity by her mere participation in the activity and there is no evidence that defendants increased the risks inherent to exercise.”
The defense attorneys also maintained that Johnson signed a participation agreement, release and assumption of the risk document provided her by the trapeze school.
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