San Diego Jury Awards $46.48 Million to Student Paralyzed in Del Mar Jiu-Jitsu Sparring, Affirmed on Appeal

Jack Greener was 23 and a white belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he sparred with an instructor at Del Mar Jiu Jitsu Club in San Diego County on November 29, 2018. He was weeks from finishing college and had planned a career as a surf instructor. The session ended with a fractured neck and a spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic. He spent several months in the hospital and had multiple strokes.

The class had ended with rotating sparring, and Greener was on the mat in the turtle position, elbows and knees down, head tucked, his back to instructor Francisco Iturralde. Iturralde first locked him in a 'seat belt' grip, but with his arm around Greener's bicep rather than over the shoulder, which left Greener unable to use that arm to protect himself. Iturralde then attempted a rolling back take. He testified that partway through he realized 'something bad' was going to happen, yet he finished the move and lost control of Greener's head and neck. The parties stipulated that Greener did nothing wrong.

Greener sued Iturralde for negligence and the club's owner, M. Phelps, Inc., for vicarious liability. The defense argued that jiu-jitsu is inherently risky and that the club owed no duty to protect a student from the sport's ordinary dangers. Videos of the incident were shown to the jury frame by frame. A jiu-jitsu expert called for the plaintiff, Rener Gracie, testified that a proper seat belt grip brings one arm over the shoulder to cradle the head and neck. Club founder Michael Phelps agreed, when shown the club's own training video, that there would have been less risk with that placement.

The case went to trial before San Diego County Superior Court Judge James A. Mangione. On March 28, 2023, after about two days of deliberation, a jury voted 9 to 3 for Greener. Because of the stipulation, the jury did not weigh any fault on his part. The total was $46,475,112, made up of $637,959 in past and future lost earnings, $1,337,153 in past medical expenses, $8.5 million in future medical expenses, $11 million for past pain and suffering and $25 million for future pain and suffering. Rahul Ravipudi, Paul Traina and John Shaller of Panish Shea Ravipudi tried the case with co-counsel from Morris, Sullivan & Lemkul and Niddrie Addams Fuller Singh.

The defendants appealed, represented by O'Melveny & Myers, arguing that the trial court gave the wrong jury instruction on primary assumption of risk and excluded evidence of Greener's earlier jiu-jitsu experience. The Court of Appeal's Fourth District, Division One, affirmed 2 to 1 in a published opinion on December 31, 2024. The majority held that an instructor who joins in sparring without giving any demonstration or instruction can be held to an ordinary negligence standard, and it stressed that the holding is narrow. The dissenting justice warned it would reach coaches who teach hands-on in other contact sports. The California Supreme Court denied review in 2025, and the judgment became final.