A padel match ends up in court and becomes a legal precedent for club managers. In Spain, a judge has ordered a sports center to compensate a player with 28,700 euros who was injured due to the breakage of one of the glass walls after an impact.
The events date back to 2023, during a normal amateur match. The victim’s account describes a rather typical game situation: while attempting to retrieve a ball near the back wall, the player ended up against the glass, which theoretically should have withstood the impact as usual. In practice, the tempered glass pane shattered into hundreds of pieces, causing a head injury and wounds to the head.
The player filed a complaint against the club, claiming that it was neither an atypical action nor a shot with excessive force. The club, on the other hand, defended itself by stating that the glass complied with all safety regulations and that only an abnormal impact could have caused its total breakage. As reported by Última Hora, the judge ruled in favor of the victim, rejecting the club’s defense argument. “Even if the glass was tempered and compliant with regulations, this does not guarantee the safety of the facility by itself. Glass can comply with regulations and still be installed or maintained incorrectly. Furthermore, spontaneous or without significant impact is indicative of a structural defect. If it is not evident that the player made a strong impact, as in the case at hand, and the breakage occurred without a violent collision or uncontrolled run, then the breakage is not compatible with correctly installed tempered glass.” The testimony of another user and customer of the club also weighed on the sentence, who a few weeks earlier had reported to the center’s staff the wear of the materials securing the glass.
