CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien has paid $35,875 to a fan who was hit by a softball he dropped from the 50-story Terminal Tower as a promotional stunt.
Gayle Falinski, 26, suffered a broken right wrist on June 25, 1980 when she was struck by the third softball Stepien dropped 700 feet from the skyscraper's observation deck.
The stunt, conducted on the 50th anniversary of the Terminal Tower, was also intended to boost the professional softball team Stepien then owned.
The $35,875 settlement kept Ms. Falinski's suit from going to trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
One of the other softballs Stepien dropped hit a man on the shoulder, but he refused treatment. Another one hit a parked car and a fourth was caught by a member of his softball team.
The suit accused Stepien of failing to determine what path the softballs would follow and acting in total disregard for the safety of spectators.
