Jim Rosica
An appeals court has decided not to revive a lawsuit filed after a man was hurt by a collapsing movie theater seat in Pensacola.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal Monday unanimously agreed a lower court was right to grant summary judgment against Isaac Simmons.
Summary judgments allow parties to win a case without a trial.
Simmons had filed suit as a product liability case. Wrong move, the courts said.
“(The) seating system is an integral part of the movie theater’s operation,” Monday’s opinion said. The “movie theater seating system was a structural improvement to real property and, thus, not a product.”
While watching a movie, the “seat that (Simmons) was sitting in broke due to a failure in the welding in the seat bottom, causing him to fall to the floor and suffer bodily harm that required surgical interventions,” according to the opinion.
Under product liability law, plaintiffs generally only have to prove they were hurt and those being sued are responsible.
The defendants in the case, including the seat manufacturer, argued “strict liability did not apply … pointing to undisputed evidence that the seating system was bolted to the concrete floor of the auditorium,” the opinion said.
