UM Not Liable For Broken Chair

The state Supreme Court ruled that the University of Montana in Missoula is not responsible for injuries sustained by a fan whose chair collapsed during a 1999 ZZ Top concert at the school.

The court upheld a district court ruling against John Bonilla, who sued the university alleging that officials did not provide adequate seating for his 350-pound frame.

Bonilla had fastened a tape recorder to a railing during the concert but was ordered to remove it by security guards. As Bonilla attempted to jerk the tape recorder free, his metal folding chair collapsed, resulting in a broken bone in his lower back.

However, he did not report the injury to the university, and officials said they didn’t find out about it until Bonilla filed suit nearly three years later.

The plaintiff had obtained advance permission to bring his own chair to the concert and sit in an area reserved for disabled fans. Security officials refused to let him bring it in, however, and provided him with a different chair.

Bonilla described the replacement chair as being at least as good or better than his own and did not explain why it broke.

The five-justice court ruled that it could find “no evidence indicating that any action or inaction by the university rendered the chair unsafe or of poor quality.”

Without proof that the chair collapsed because of university negligence, the court said the school could not be held responsible for Bonilla’s injuries.