Wyoming High Court Reopens Meadowlark Playground Injury Lawsuit

The original story by Ivy Secrest by Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

A lawsuit over a serious playground injury at a Cheyenne elementary school is back on track after the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled the case was wrongly tossed out.

In a decision published Tuesday, the high court effectively revived Scott and Heather Hunter’s lawsuit over a 2018 injury to their then-11-year-old daughter at Meadowlark Elementary School in Laramie County School District 1.

According to the lawsuit, the Hunters’ daughter, identified as LH, was playing on the Rocks and Ropes play structure in January 2018 when her T5 spinal vertebra was crushed.

The family sued in 2020, naming:

• Laramie County School District 1 (LCSD1);
• Universal Precast Concrete/UPC Parks;
• Miracle Recreation Equipment Company;
• Churchich Recreation Equipment.

They claimed:

• The equipment was defectively designed and installed, with too much slack in the ropes for multiple kids to use safely.
• LCSD1 was negligent in supervising and operating the playground.
• The school nurse mishandled medical care, giving LH ibuprofen, sending her back to class and never notifying the parents, who only took her to a doctor weeks later when she kept having back pain.

Doctors then diagnosed the crushed vertebra.

Back in 2022, District Judge Peter Froelicher granted summary judgment to the equipment companies, throwing out the product liability claims and leaving only the negligence claim against LCSD1.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld that part of his ruling.

The justices said:

• Just because a child was hurt using the equipment doesn’t automatically prove it was defective.
• The Hunters needed to show a specific defect or solid evidence that the product was unreasonably dangerous — and they didn’t.
• The companies, meanwhile, brought in playground safety experts (including a certified inspector and an ASTM safety standards leader) who testified the structure met safety standards.

The court agreed the Hunters failed to counter that evidence and their own experts were properly excluded as unreliable or unhelpful to the jury.

The remaining negligence claim against LCSD1 was set for trial on July 15, 2024, after years of delays — some tied to COVID-19.

But the trial barely got started.

During jury selection and opening, the Hunters’ attorney, Frederick J. Harrison, repeatedly crossed lines the judge had set:

• He asked improper questions in voir dire that the judge said “conditioned” jurors on facts in the case.
• His attempted opening statement, according to the courts, tried to inflame the jury and violated prior rulings.

Judge Froelicher declared a mistrial, then went further and dismissed the entire case with prejudice — the harshest penalty, meaning the lawsuit was dead and could not be refiled.

The Hunters appealed, arguing that:

• Their experts were wrongly excluded.
• Summary judgment for the companies was improper.
• And most importantly, the judge went too far by dismissing the entire case as punishment for their lawyer’s conduct.

The Supreme Court:

• Agreed with the judge on excluding experts.
• Agreed that summary judgment for the equipment companies was appropriate.
• But disagreed with dismissing the case with prejudice.

The justices stressed that dismissal with prejudice is a “most severe” sanction and Wyoming law favors letting people have their day in court.

They said the mistrial already addressed the misconduct and that the district court abused its discretion by going straight to the nuclear option of permanent dismissal. The case should’ve been sanctioned in some lesser way.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to Laramie County District Court with instructions to:

• Reconsider the sanctions and choose something less severe than dismissal with prejudice.

That means the Hunters’ negligence claim against LCSD1 can move forward, even though the equipment companies remain off the hook.

In short: the playground injury case isn’t over. It’s headed back to district court, this time with a clearer path for the family to continue their fight against the school district.