Jefferson County Jury Awards ~$495K in House of Boom Punching-Bag Case
Won by Winton & Hiestand Law Group PLLC.
A Louisville jury found House of Boom 60% liable after a patron broke his back striking an all-black punching bag during a lights-out event, resulting in damages of roughly $495,000 after comparative fault.
What happened
On the night of January 30, 2016, Andrew Followell, then 28, visited House of Boom, a trampoline park at 100 Urton Lane in Louisville, during one of its 'Club Boom' sessions. Club Boom runs with the lights turned off, turning the facility into a darkened entertainment venue.
Followell jumped from a raised platform onto a trampoline below, bounced once into the air, and struck one of two heavy punching bags suspended from the ceiling. The bag and the ceiling above it were both black, making the obstacle effectively invisible in the darkened room. The impact sent him down hard onto padded metal framing, fracturing his back.
Followell sued House of Boom Kentucky, LLC, arguing the park created an unreasonably dangerous condition by running a darkness event with large hanging obstacles that patrons could not see or anticipate. Chauncey Hiestand of Winton and Hiestand Law Group represented Followell at trial. Hiestand told jurors that his client had no reasonable way to know an all-black heavy bag was hanging from a black ceiling in the dark.
A Jefferson Circuit Court jury deliberated and found for Followell. The panel assigned 40% of fault to Followell and 60% to House of Boom, resulting in damages of approximately $495,000 under Kentucky's comparative-fault rules.
After the April 2019 verdict, House of Boom filed a motion to have the judgment overturned. Before that motion was resolved, the parties reached a full settlement agreement; the final settlement figure was not publicly disclosed.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.