Osorio v. Thomas Balsley Associates

The 12-year-old plaintiff was injured when, while playing tag with his friends, he climbed onto a “ballet bar” or “stretching bar” in the adult fitness area of a municipally-owned park, and fell over an adjacent perimeter fence, dropping approximately nine feet to the sidewalk outside the park. Plaintiff sued two municipal defendants, who are not parties to this appeal, and Thomas Balsley Associates, the landscape architectural firm which designed the playground.

The floor of the fitness area underneath the stretching bar is rubberized, and is located five feet higher than the outside…