The theme is assumption of risk, and the most bizarre case was (as always) in the notes…
As part of an advertising campaign for wrinkle-resistant slacks, the defendant was promoting “the National Lap Sitting Contest” on college campuses. The object of the contest was to stack co-eds on a contestant’s lap, with the winner having the lap which holds the most co-eds for a 10 second period. The prize was three or four pairs of slacks and a night on the town. Such a contest was held at the University of Texas at El Paso where plaintiff was a student…
When the plaintiff’s turn came to participate, 14 co-eds were placed on his lap, which would have broken the existing record. But the pressure of the contest became too great and the chair collapsed injuring plaintiff. Shortly after the contest began, a different and supposedly less sturdy chair had collapsed under a previous contestant and fewer co-eds.
Now picture this:
The record contained testimony that when the plaintiff went to the Student Union Building the program had not started; that he was present during the entire program until his accident; that one chair broke under the weight of one man and some girls; that the chair that was used thereafter was a typical wood armless office chair; that plaintiff knew he weighed 240 pounds and intended to hold fourteen girls who weighed about 100 pounds each; that the girls were to be picked up and laid across each other, on his lap, and that the weight was unstable and was ill-distributed; and that he intended to hold the weight, with none of the girls touching the floor, for a period that would be timed.
And of course. The chair gave way. He was hurt. And the judge said, “Uh, assumption of risk. Fail whale fail.”
Wyly v. Burlington Industries, Inc., 452 F.2d 807, 809 (5th Cir. Tex. 1971)