Typically if you’re injured at your gym, you may think have little or no recourse against the gym for injuries. Most gyms have you sign a waiver and release form as part of your membership, in which you are expressly waiving any claims against the gym for injuries you suffer while at the gym, essentially assuming the risk of injury. Under Arizona law, whether or not you as the injured party assumed the risk is always for a jury to determine. More simply put, just because you may have signed a an agreement with your gym that you will not pursue the gym if injured, does not necessarily mean that agreement is enforceable, and that only a jury can make that determination.
The California Court of Appeal recently dealt a gym injury and a standard gym liability waiver/release form and whether it relieved the gym of liability for the gym’s gross negligence in failing to perform regular preventative maintenance on a machine. The machine in question (a cross-trainer) fell off the wall and landed on the Plaintiff’s head. The plaintiff suffered a traumatic brain injury. The waiver and release barred any claims for negligence only, but did not relieve the gym of any liability for the gross negligence.
So if you were injured at your gym, it is not a given that the gym is not liable, it would depend on the facts and circumstances surrounding each case.
