$2 Million Record Settlement for Teen Linebacker Who Suffered Brain Injury on Wharton High Practice Field

On October 9, 2013, Sean McNamee, a 16-year-old varsity linebacker at Wharton High School in Tampa, was running a passing drill without pads or a helmet when he struck his head on a field-striper, a paint machine used to mark yard lines that had been left on the practice area. The players were running drills in their lower uniforms only, before pads and helmets went on.

The blow fractured his skull and caused a serious traumatic brain injury. He walked off the field holding his head at around 3:50 p.m., was briefly seen by the athletic trainer, given a bag of ice, and then left alone in the training room. His sister found him incoherent and semi-conscious. His father drove him to the emergency room, where doctors placed him in a medically induced coma. He remained in that coma for nine days and required two brain surgeries. The injuries left him with epileptic seizures and ongoing neurological complications.

The McNamee family retained C. Steven Yerrid, who sued the Hillsborough County School District and the School Board of Hillsborough County for negligence. The lawsuit alleged that the district had breached its contractual obligation to maintain general liability insurance coverage as required under Florida High School Athletic Association bylaws, and that school personnel failed to provide adequate medical attention after the injury. After the injury, McNamee had been unattended in the training room for more than 30 minutes before anyone realized he was in distress.

In October 2015, the school board agreed to a $2 million settlement, the largest the district had ever paid in a personal-injury case. Under Florida law, state agencies are capped at a $300,000 direct payment, so the board committed to pay that lump sum within 30 days and to support a legislative claims bill authorizing the remaining $1.7 million from the Florida Legislature.

As part of the agreement, the district also adopted 'The McNamee Protocol,' a formal set of procedures requiring school officials to follow specific steps whenever a student sustains a potentially serious head injury. The board additionally agreed to carry $1 million in supplemental liability coverage per high school athlete beginning with the 2016-2017 school year. The $2 million figure stood at the time as a record payout by a Florida school district in an athletics-related injury case.