Gallagher v. Cleveland Browns Football Co.

The issue presented is whether a defendant who makes no attempt to introduce primary assumption of risk as an issue before or during a trial, but instead waits until after the jury returns a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, is precluded from relying on primary assumption of risk as a complete defense in a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. For the reasons that follow, we determine that appellees waived primary assumption of risk as a defense because they failed to raise it in a timely manner. By failing to take advantage of numerous opportunities to inject the defense of…