December 9, 2019

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has decided that the insurer has no duty to pay for losses ensuing from an incident involving a festival attendee and a flying beach ball. The case is Princeton Excess & Surplus Lines Ins. Co., v. Hub City Enters., No. 6:18-cv-1608-Orl-41GJK, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182149 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 3, 2019).

During Rum Fest 2017, a music and dancing festival hosted by Hub City Enterprises (Hub City), an "extra-large, heavy inflatable beach ball" was "thrown into the crowd for people to push it around in the air." Robert Hunt, a festival attendee and also a defendant in this action, claims that during the festival, the beach ball was knocked towards him, and that he used his "outstretched arms and hands to push the extra-large beach ball away from him to prevent it from hitting him in the head" a movement which resulted in severe ligament and tendon injuries. The beach ball was provided by Hub City. Hunt sued Hub City for compensation for his injuries.