Reference no: EM133402240

Mike went to a friend's birthday party that involved paintball at Paintball and Airsoft of Indiana (PAIN). Eight friends that ranged in ages from 15 to 17 were at the party. Most of the party guests had played paintball before. Mike was 16 at the time, and had never played. When they arrived at the facility, everyone had to fill out, or turn in, waivers to participate. Mike's dad had printed out and signed a waiver the previous day.

A worker from PAIN gathered the waivers, handed out equipment, and ran through a 15 minute safety briefing. Another worker accompanied them to each field throughout the day to supervise and help with any technical issues.

At some point, Mike's mask began to fog up repeatedly. He advised the worker, and the worker replaced the mask for him. The worker told Mike to control his breathing and that the rental masks, "tend to fog up."

Mike soon found that the replacement mask was fogging up just as frequently as the previous mask. He was having a difficult time seeing and was shot a few times because he could not see an opposing player. Frustrated, he pulled the mask away from his face to wipe the inside with his shirt. As he did, another player's paintball struck him in the face and part of the paintball went into Mike's right eye. He lost 80% of his vision in that eye.

Based on the law, what is your opinion of this case? Some areas to explore include: duty, standard of care, breach of duty, waivers, assumption of risk, in loco parentis, and what (if any) legal recourse does Mike have?