The Cheer Sharks have filed an intent to defend legal action taken against it last fall for an alleged 2016 incident that left an athlete with the former Cambridge club with "functional limitations."
According to court documents filed in the Hamilton Supreme Court in March, the Shark Tank Limited, Kaitlyn Beier, Rayna Marques and Cheer Sports Sharks Limited along with the Ontario Cheerleading Federation (OCF) have filed to defend themselves against litigation from a former athlete and her family seeking over $2.5 million in damages.
Neither the OCF or the Cheer Sport Sharks responded to requests for comments.
In Oct. 2022, former Shark athlete Brooklyn Seftel, now 20, filed a lawsuit against the organization, coaches Beier and Marques and the OCF for alleged negligence on behalf of the club that caused her to sustain permanent injuries causing functional limitations.
The document states that during a Feb. 16, 2016 closed practice at the organization's Cambridge facility, Brooklyn "was struck on the head/neck by another participant and suffered dizziness, nausea, light sensitivity and other symptoms of concussion."
Brooklyn and her teammates were practicing a pyramid formation for the provincial championships when the injuries occurred, according to the statement of claim. The gymnastics club moved to Kitchener for the 2022-23 season.
Four days after suffering her injury, the claim says Brooklyn attended another practice when her mother, Michelle Seftel, told Beier that Brooklyn was still experiencing concussion-like symptoms and asked her to be excused from the pyramid formation practise.
"Despite this request, Brooklyn was directed to participate in the pyramid formation practice and was again struck multiple times on the head by another participant," reads the claim.
The Seftel family allege that the concussion and resulting impairments are a direct result of the joint negligence of the Sharks, coaches and the OCF.
Their arguments against the OCF include: not ensuring that its regulations and policies were followed, not ensuring that programs of its members were operating safely, failing to ensure that the concussion protocol, in particular, was being properly followed by its members and failing to train its members on proper policies, procedures and regulations.
The Sharks and their coaches are being accused of: failing to advise the Seftel family within a reasonable period of time that she had been injured, failing to follow accepted concussion protocol and or concussion recovery guidelines, failing to properly train, supervise and monitor its coaches and failed to properly limit the participation by Brooklyn in practice when they knew or should have known that she had suffered a concussion.
Brooklyn has experienced depression, anxiety and permanent functional limitations as a consequence of her injuries, according to the lawsuit.
The Seftels state that Brooklyn has suffered the loss of enjoyment of life and the activities of daily living. The document claims that she has been left unable to properly care for herself; having to rely on the others for care.
Even things like going to school and working will be a challenge for Brooklyn as she navigates life post injury, according to the document.
"Brooklyn is unable to continue with her education and as a result has suffered and will continue to suffer a loss of income, a permanent loss of her earning capacity, a loss of competitive advantage and her work life expectancy has been reduced," read the claim.
The family also claims to have paid out-of-pocket medical expenses for these injuries including housekeeping and home maintenance expenses and attendant care expenses.
No court date is set, but according to the Ontario Civil Claims Court, "the case must be set down for trial no more than 180 days after the first Statement of Defence or Notice of Intent to Defend was filed."
