Hermitage PTO dismissed from suit over girl’s fall

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

HERMITAGE February 08, 2008 07:12 pm

— A local judge has dismissed Hermitage Parent-Teacher Organization from a suit filed over a girl’s injury on the Artman Elementary School playground and consolidated the two suits filed.
The PTO said it and George L. Howze, who sued on behalf of his daughter, Zoe, now 9, had “worked out their differences.” The PTO still could be questioned as part of the discovery phase of the suit.
Howze, represented by Robert B. Woomer of Pittsburgh, sued the school district and Recreation Creations Inc., Hillsdale, Mich., on Aug. 10, 2006, charging negligence, liability and loss of services. He followed on Dec. 10 with the suit against the PTO and Baker Equipment for Athletics and Recreation Inc., Bakers-town, Pa., charging the same liabilities.
The Baker suit will be wrapped up in the suit against the school district and Recreation Creations. Woomer agreed with the consolidation and discontinuance.
Zoe was 6 and a first-grader at Artman when she was playing on the “3-level chinning bars” on Oct. 13, 2005, according to the suit. She had climbed atop a pull-up bar when she slipped and fell, suffering a broken elbow, muscle damage and other injuries.
The school district, represented by Michael L. Fitzpatrick of Pittsburgh, has denied any negligence, carelessness or recklessness in the purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of the play equipment, and argued it “acted in a reasonable and prudent manner at all applicable times.”
Recreation Creations denies any liability, and Baker has yet to answer the suit.