Performer's stage dive at pre-Grammy show is shown to injure plaintiff. $4.5M. Los Angeles.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  On February 11, 2012, plaintiff attended a pre-Grammy show at The Belasco Theater in Los Angeles, headlining the electronic dance music ("EDM") DJ known as Skrillex. Plaintiff was a big EDM fan. She had seen parts of Skrillex's sets three times prior, but testified she had never seen him stage-dive (though he had in fact done so at the end of each of these sets).
  
  At the end of the show, Skrillex got on his DJ stand, beckoned the crowd closer, and dove into the crowd. Plaintiff was near the front of the stage with her boyfriend. Skrillex's road manager, LBT employee Robert Dyar, pulled Skrillex out of the crowd by his leg, causing a crowd of people to surge toward the stage where plaintiff was standing, and causing Skrillex to be dragged over plaintiff.
  
  During the stage dive, plaintiff felt a blow to the back of her head and assumed Skrillex had kicked her. Her boyfriend said he saw this happen. However, amateur videos taken of the stage dive did not show Skrillex kick plaintiff. Moreover, the videos showed plaintiff smiling before and after the dive. She did not report the incident to the defendant theater or seek medical attention after the show.

  Plaintiff texted her boyfriend 18 hours after the show: "I have terrible whiplash from getting kicked in the head." Sixteen days after the show, plaintiff suffered a pontine stroke (a stroke in her pons) due to dissection of her left vertebral artery.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  That Skrillex knew his stage-diving led to unpredictable results, such as crowds falling over, people being knocked down, bloody noses, broken arms, etc. Moreover, his stage-diving was unnecessary for his performance and unreasonable. That Mr. Dyar and LBT contributed to the injury by dragging Skrillex over plaintiff during the dive, and by not holding a pre-show security briefing with The Belasco Theater to confirm whether Skrillex would stage-dive or not.
  
  That Belasco Theater was negligent for not having a pre-show meeting with Skrillex's team, which could have resulted in them preventing Skrillex from stage-diving. Also, that the venue was liable for overselling the event, not having a security plan for the show, and using improperly licensed security personnel.
  
  The jury was shown video footage of Robert Dyar's "look of shock" when he realized Skrillex was going to stage-dive. This led to Dyar's hasty decision to drag Skrillex out of the crowd. Video footage also showed that the audience was not expecting a stage dive (a still shot showed a young man in the front row looking at his phone at the time of the dive). 

  A central issue was whether plaintiff's vertebral artery dissection was traumatic (i.e., caused by the blow to her head during the stage dive) or spontaneous (i.e., caused by risk factors unrelated to trauma.)
  
  UCSF stroke neurologist Wade Smith, UCSF interventional neuroradiologist Steven Hetts, and plaintiff's treating stroke neurologist, Zahra Ajani all testified that trauma from the show caused her dissection and stroke. Whiplash is a well-known cause of vertebral artery dissection, and spontaneous dissections and strokes are rare for 24-year-olds to suffer. Moreover, the medical literature establishes the median time between dissection and stroke is two weeks, which placed plaintiff in the classic time frame for stroke due to dissection. Finally, the experts for both sides testified the primary sign of a vertebral artery dissection is neck pain. Plaintiff's boyfriend testified she complained of neck pain immediately after the show, and again when she sent the "whiplash" text to him 18 hours later. 

• Defendant's Contentions:

  Defendants argued that the videos showed, contrary to plaintiff and her boyfriend's testimony, that Skrillex did not kick plaintiff. Defendants also claimed that stage-diving at EDM shows is customary and that plaintiff, an avid EDM fan, knew or should have known this. Skrillex testified he stage-dove hundreds of times without anyone complaining of being injured. Skrillex and LBT both argued Mr. Dyar acted as he normally did when Skrillex stage-dove at the concert.
  
  In contrast, Belasco Theater said they had no idea that Skrillex stage-dove at his shows, and were "shocked and "surprised" when he did so that night at their theater.

  Defendants argued that plaintiff had numerous risk factors for spontaneous dissection, such as paroxysmal coughing due to an upper respiratory infection, recent alcohol consumption, fibromuscular dysplasia, vomiting, and self-cracking of her neck. Defendants also argued the trauma may not have happened at all, since the videos did not show Skrillex kicking her in the head.