When someone is injured while using gym equipment, they need to be certain they remember the events leading up to the injury. When using gym equipment, a person needs to ask trainers and other gym personnel how to use the equipment before using it alone. After that, it’s important to always ask questions when needed and know ones personal limits on equipments and don’t go beyond them. Everyone that uses gym equipment has personal liability in regards to any injuries received up to a point. In the state of Oregon, negligence is determined under the Comparative negligence theory, if you are more than 51% at fault, you cannot collect any monetary damages. If you are less than 51% at fault, your monetary damage reward is comparative to your degree of fault.
If a gym is knowingly using old or broken equipment they could be held accountable for their negligence. In order to prove this in Oregon you need to prove all of the following items:
• Gym owes the member a duty of care
• Gym breached that duty
• Injuries happened
• The breach in duty directly caused the injuries
The gym may say that the equipment was regularly inspected by the gym, and it is the manufacturer’s fault for the injury. This is called strict liability for a consumer product and in order to prove this you need to prove all of these items:
• Gym equipment was defective which caused unreasonable danger to the user(s)
• The equipment was used for its intentional use only
• The defect caused the injury
• Injuries happened