HARRISBURG – A state appellate court has turned away the case of a former college football player who alleged the National Collegiate Athletic Association should have prevented the head injuries which he said led him to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
A Jan. 8 decision from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania rejected the appeal of Matthew Onyshko and his wife Jessica Onyshko, who argued that the trial court, the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, improperly admitted evidence that led the jury to rule in favor of the NCAA.
Onyshko played football for California University of Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2003, and sued the NCAA in 2014. He charged that because he experienced repeated blows to the head during his athletic career, and added the NCAA should have known such trauma can lead to long-term medical conditions – such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – which Onyshko developed.
After a trial in May 2019 was lasted almost three weeks, the jury concluded that the NCAA was not negligent in failing to prevent Onyshko’s injuries and later development of ALS, and rendered its verdict in favor of the athletic organization.
On appeal and among other objections, the Onyshkos sought a new trial and countered that the trial court denied hearing testimony from one of their expert physicians, while at the same time, permitting the admission into evidence of opinions from experts selected by the NCAA.
Washington County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Lucas explained at trial that he did not allow testimony from the Onyshkos speaking to the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, because the findings were not in alignment with generally accepted medical methodology. However, the trial court did allow other evidence about head trauma and ALS offered by the Onyshkos.
The Onyshko also argued that a mistrial should have been immediately declared after the NCAA’s closing argument, alleging the NCAA’s counsel unfairly opined on evidence presented during the trial.
“They came up with a new disease. You have never seen it in print other than a slide made up by counsel, football ALS. I challenge anyone to find that in the diagnostic manual or any medical book. Then they changed it a little bit at one point and said trauma ALS. Same challenge. Same question. If there is such a thing as football ALS, then football should go away. But thankfully there isn’t,” the NCAA counsel is alleged to have said.
However, Lucas ruled that closing statement did not violate courtroom procedure.
The Superior Court affirmed Lucas’s ruling in its entirety, with Judge Judith Ference Olson authoring the opinion for the appellate court and fellow judges Mary Jane Bowes and John L. Musmanno.
“We have reviewed the briefs of the parties, the relevant law, the certified record, the notes of testimony, and the opinion of the able trial court judge, the Honorable Michael J. Lucas. We conclude that appellants are not entitled to relief in this case, for the reasons expressed in Judge Lucas’ Oct. 1, 2019 opinion,” Olson stated.
“Therefore, we affirm on the basis of Judge Lucas’s thorough opinion and adopt it as our own. In any future filing with this or any other court addressing this ruling, the filing party shall attach a copy of Judge Lucas’s Oct. 1, 2019 opinion.”
Superior Court of Pennsylvania case 1611 WDA 2019
Washington County Court of Common Pleas case 2014-3620
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com