A blind minor league hockey player—after being poked in the eye with a hockey stick—is now fighting to prevent a federal judge from reopening his case. Kyler Moje was injured in February 2012 while playing for the Danville Dashers, when the stick of another player got under his visor and struck his eye, blinding him. Moje never regained the ability to see and instituted the action against the Federal Hockey League LLC (FHL). After failing to respond to Moje’s lawsuit, a federal court in Illinois entered a default judgment of $800,000 against the league. For months, the insurance company has been trying to get out of the lawsuit.
In this latest attempt, the insurer argues that the federal court misinterpreted the Illinois Supreme Court case, Skaperdas v. Country Casualty Insurance, upon which its decision was based in this case. Specifically, the insurer argues that this application of state law is an “unwarranted expansion of duties owed by Illinois insurance procedures.” In response, Moje argues that a duty of care exists “to any insurance salesperson regardless of whether a fiduciary or agency relationship exists.” The insurer also lost a challenge to reopen the case before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015.
One of the reasons that the league, and its insurer, are attempting to get out of this suit is because it threatens the financial viability of its business operations. Created in 2009, the FHL has had issues in generating revenue and has fallen victim to low attendance at its games. While major hockey organizations have budgets operating in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the highest club budget in the FHL is $400,000. Moje and his attorney are seeking discovery and seizure of the leagues assets.