Opinion
Submitted January 19, 2000
February 28, 2000
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the plaintiffs appeal from an order of Supreme Court, Queens County (LeVine, J.), entered March 18, 1999, which, inter alia, granted the defendants' cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Tellerman, Paticoff, Greenberg Taubman, New York, N.Y. (Glenn A. Kimelman of counsel), for appellants.
Michael D. Hess, Corporation Counsel, New York, N.Y. (Larry A. Sonnenshein and Sharyn Rootenberg of counsel), for respondents.
CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, J.P., MYRIAM J. ALTMAN, WILLIAM D. FRIEDMANN, LEO F. McGINITY, NANCY E. SMITH, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
"[B]y engaging in a sport or recreational activity, a participant consents to those commonly appreciated risks which are inherent in and arise out of the nature of the sport generally and flow from such participation" ( Morgan v. State of New York, 90 N.Y.2d 471, 484). This encompasses risk associated with the construction of the playing field, and any open and obvious conditions on it ( see, Maddox v. City of New York, 66 N.Y.2d 270, 277; Sheridan v. City of New York, 261 A.D.2d 528; Retian v. City of New York, 259 A.D.2d 684; Torre v. City of Glenn Cove, 259 A.D.2d 373; Garafola v. City of New York, 247 A.D.2d 581). The record demonstrates that the 16-year-old infant plaintiff, a minor youth football player in the Pop Warner League, voluntarily chose to play on an astroturf surface the condition of which was open and obvious, and thus assumed the risk of injury from tripping over a seam in the turf ( see, Maddox v. City of New York, supra; Sheridan v. City of New York, supra; Torre v. City of Glen Cove, supra; Riquelme v. City of New York, supra; Hansman v. Village of Lynbrook, supra).