Townsend

In a varsity basketball game between the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and San Jose State University (San Jose State), a player for San Jose State, Ronald Lowe, struck a UCLA player, Raymond Townsend, with his fists and inflicted physical injury. In a personal injury action filed by Townsend against Lowe and various other defendants, a jury awarded Townsend $25,000 as against Lowe.

Before the matter was submitted to the jury, however, the trial court determined as a matter of law that defendant Lowe was not an employee of the State of California (State) and thus Townsend could not recover under the doctrine of respondeat superior against the other named defendants, i.e., the State, the athletic director and the coach at San Jose State.

Townsend has appealed contending essentially that, since intercollegiate athletics are “big business” and generate large revenues for the institutions who field teams in such competition, the athletes who represent those institutions should be considered to be employees or agents of those institutions under the doctrine of respondeat superior.

In determining the motion for summary adjudication, the trial court had before…