Fat’s all, folks! A woman who had her back broken by a falling fat guy at Shea Stadium has settled her big buck lawsuit against the Mets, court records show.
Ellen Massey blamed the team for her injuries, contending they knew or should have known the drunken 300-pound fan five rows above her was a problem, and they did nothing to stop him from tormenting the other people in her section.
That fan, Timothy Cassidy, denies he was drunk, but witnesses said he was so sloshed, he couldn’t even complete the “Let’s go Mets!” chant.
The incident happened on opening day of 2007, when Massey had treated two of her nephews to watch the Amazin’s take on their hated rival Phillies.
Witnesses said Cassidy was drunk and belligerent through the game, chiding fans for not being boisterous enough and “trying to pick a fight with anybody he can.”
At one point, a female witness said Cassidy walked up to her and “randomly took nachos from my plate without asking.”
“He took I think two chips and scooped [her fixings] … and ate, and then walked back to his seat,” the woman said at a deposition.
Toward the end of the game, Cassidy toppled over, tumbling down five rows of the steep upper deck onto Massey. The impact broke one of Massey’s vertebrae, and she needed to have two rods put in her back.
Massey, a lawyer, sued the Mets for shoddy security and Cassidy for negligence after learning his identity.
Cassidy maintained he didn’t fall ; he was pushed by another fan who’d been chiding him for spending more time looking at his BlackBerry than watching the game. The Mets contended they shouldn’t be held responsible because the fall was “spontaneous and unexpected.”
Court records show the case is settled, but the amount of the settlement is unclear. Lawyers for Cassidy and Massey and a rep for the Mets did not immediately return calls for comment.