Wyoming Supreme Court Revives School Injury Lawsuit Story

In a long-running lawsuit over a 2018 playground injury at Meadowlark Elementary School in Cheyenne, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that the case may continue after a district judge improperly dismissed it as a sanction. The case began when Scott and Heather Hunter alleged that their daughter suffered a crushed vertebra after another student jumped or fell onto the “Rocks and Ropes” playground equipment, causing her to be jolted violently. They sued the companies involved in designing and installing the equipment, as well as Laramie County School District #1, claiming defective design, lack of warnings, negligent supervision, and inadequate medical care by the school nurse. Years of pandemic-affected delays, discovery disputes, expert-witness challenges, and multiple rescheduled trial dates followed.

In time, most claims were knocked out when the district court excluded the Hunters’ expert witnesses and granted summary judgment to the equipment manufacturers. The Supreme Court affirmed those rulings, explaining that under Wyoming law, an injury alone does not prove a product defect. Plaintiffs must show either a specific defect or present evidence allowing a defect to be inferred by ruling out abnormal use and other possible causes—something the Hunters failed to do. The manufacturers, supported by industry experts, presented evidence that Rocks and Ropes met established ASTM safety standards and had no hidden dangers, shifting the burden to the Hunters, who offered only conclusory arguments and inadmissible expert testimony. Without reliable evidence showing the equipment was unreasonably dangerous, their product-liability and negligence claims could not survive.

The only remaining claims—those against the School District—went to trial in July 2024, but the judge declared a mistrial after ruling the Hunters’ attorney gave an improper and argumentative opening statement. The School District then sought dismissal of the case as a sanction, and the judge dismissed all remaining claims with prejudice. On appeal, the Wyoming Supreme Court agreed the attorney’s conduct warranted consequences but said dismissal—the harshest possible sanction—was not justified. The court noted that while the attorney had a contentious history in the case, the record did not show the kind of extreme misconduct, fraud, or discovery abuses seen in past cases where dismissals were upheld. The mistrial already addressed the immediate trial misconduct, the court said, and the additional dismissal went too far. The justices reversed the dismissal and sent the case back for the district court to impose a lesser sanction, allowing the remaining negligence claims against the School District to proceed.

In the end, the Wyoming Supreme Court reinforced that product-liability claims require real evidence of a defect—not just an injury—while still ensuring that litigants aren’t punished for their attorney’s mistakes. By reversing the harsh dismissal but upholding summary judgment for the manufacturers, the Court drew a clear line between enforcing legal standards and preserving a fair chance to be heard.