Brian Cariota's $1M Lawsuit Against Astros over 2019 Foul Ball Injury Dismissed

Brian Cariota's $1 million lawsuit against the Houston Astros was dismissed with prejudice by a Harris County District Court, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.

Cariota was seeking the damages after being hit by a foul ball during Game 2 of the 2019 American League Championship Series. He was working as a paramedic supervisor for the Harris County Emergency Corps during the game and was in the Astros dugout as the team's paramedic when a foul ball by Michael Brantley hit him in the head.

Per that report, his lawsuit stated he "suffered a traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage along the left frontal lobe and a fracture of the left superior orbital wall."

In 2019, his wife appeared on ABC13 and said Cariota believed that it was simply a freak accident.

"He felt like he shouldn't have taken his eye off the ball," she said at the time, per Nick Natario of ABC13. "He knows it was just one of those freak accidents, and he wants them to win it all. He wants them to take it back."

But Cariota eventually decided to sue the team. He originally claimed the team's sign-stealing scheme prevented them from installing netting atop the dugout that would have prevented him from being struck in the head. 

The lawsuit originally said that "the last thing a team engaging in sign-stealing wants is a safety net protecting the dugout which may even partially obstruct the view of the opposing catcher's signs." He added that former general manager Jeff Luhnow and former manager A.J. Hinch were two of the decision-makers who didn't want the safety netting.

An amended petition in the lawsuit last month removed any mention of sign-stealing, Luhnow or Hinch, however, and instead focused on the Astros allegedly rejecting the recommendation of a company to extend their safety netting to the dugout rails.