Coast woman said she was injured running a muddy obstacle course. Now there’s a lawsuit.
A Jackson County woman has filed a lawsuit against a company that runs a female-only obstacle course event, claiming she was injured while leaping headfirst into an inflatable pool.
The event, called the Muddy Princess Run, is held at the Harrison County Fairgrounds in South Mississippi. The run is described in the lawsuit as a “5K running race with obstacles, including crawling through mud, swinging on ropes over mud, and balancing on floats in mud.”
Patricia M. Orner says she suffered temporary paralysis after she was injured at the event in April 2022.
In a lawsuit filed in Harrison County Circuit Court against Muddy Princess Corp., Orner says one of the obstacles was a inflatable pink pool with water at the bottom. The 4-foot inflated walls obscured the view of what was inside, the lawsuit said, and this obstacle did not appear in any pre-event literature. No warning signs were around the pool telling people not to go headfirst, the suit said.
“Plaintiff, unsure on how to best and safely traverse the obstacle, jumped over it head first, and with the aid of another participant, landed on her head into the shallow pool of water, severely injuring her, and resulting in temporary paralysis, as well as further complications to her neck,” the lawsuit said.
Orner said she signed a liability waiver before participating in the event, but hers was for attendees, not participants. She claims she was given the waiver only after paying to participate, and the waivers covered only the inherent risks of the event and ordinary negligence. She is suing the company running the event for gross negligence and willful misconduct.
Muddy Princess Runs are held at several locations nationwide and are overseen by the parent corporation based in Miami.
Orner is seeking unspecified damages. The suit says she has endured medical bills, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
A lawsuit represents only one side of a legal argument.
This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 6:00 AM.