Harris County Jury Awards $11.485 Million to Teen With Brain Injury From Torn Trampoline at Houston Park

In 2013, a 16-year-old went to Cosmic Jump, an indoor trampoline park in Houston. He fell through a torn trampoline, struck his head on the concrete floor beneath it, and fractured his skull. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and has no memory of the accident.

The park's operator, the National Trampoline Entertainment Center, did business as Cosmic Jump. Tom Crosley, who represented the teenager, told the Houston Chronicle that evidence at trial showed the park knew about the hole in the trampoline and did not close off the area. That evidence went to the central question for the jury: whether the park had been merely careless or grossly negligent.

The case was tried over two weeks in the 334th Judicial District Court in Harris County before Judge Grant Dorfman, with David Medack defending the park. At the end of February 2016, after the two weeks of testimony, the jury found Cosmic Jump grossly negligent according to its written verdict.

The award totaled $11.485 million. Of that, $5.485 million was compensatory damages, covering future medical expenses and lost earning capacity. The jury added $6 million in punitive damages. Texas limits punitive awards, and Crosley said this one did not exceed the cap and that he expected it to stand.

The young man had finished high school and was a freshman at Sam Houston State University when the jury returned its verdict. According to Crosley, he continues to have difficulty with balance and abstract reasoning, and bleeding in his brain makes early onset dementia a long-term concern. His mother said the family was grateful the jury had told trampoline places that anyone who sets up shop in a community is expected to keep other people's children safe.

The industry was growing quickly at the time. The International Association of Trampoline Parks estimated 345 parks in North America in 2014 and expected 115 more to open by the end of 2015. Lawyers for the teenager searched earlier cases and believed this was the largest verdict in the United States against a commercial trampoline park. Medack said the park planned to file post-verdict motions but declined to say what they would argue.