Parents File Premises Liability Suit After Son Dies At Missouri Water Park
The legal battle over the drowning of a Missouri child continues as the family of the boy claims the pool is liable for damages because of inadequate supervision at the swimming facility. The 6-year-old boy drowned last summer at the Swimmin' Hole, a private water park in rural Joplin, while on a field trip with the Boys & Girls Club.
Authorities ruled the death an accident, but alleged "a lack of supervision" on the part of club chaperons and the water-park employees. The parents have filed suit against the Boys & Girls Club and the water park owners.
Actions to recover for swimming-pool accidents at hotels, motels, resorts, and private or public association or club facilities generally follow standard negligence principles. This means that the swimming pool owners and chaperons in this case must have had a duty of care to the little boy, breached that duty, which resulted in injury that was directly caused by the breach of duty. The plaintiff often attempts to show that the defendant violated statutory requirements for swimming pools. According to the American Jurisprudence 2nd, in actions to recover for injury or death suffered in a swimming pool, plaintiffs can successfully establish the defendant's liability on numerous grounds.
In some cases, the defendant's failure to provide any lifeguard or other supervisory services at its pool has been found to render the defendant liable. In other cases where the defendant provided lifeguard or other supervisory services, but the plaintiff claimed they were inadequate, such as the case above, courts have split decisions, depending on the magnitude and reasonableness of the inadequacy of the supervisory services.
Courts have found there was sufficient evidence of a pool's negligence, based on a lifeguard's temporary absence from the pool or a lifeguard's socializing while on the lifeguard stand. The court found that if the lifeguard had been present at the pool or supervising more carefully, he could have saved the decedent's life or at least avoided liability. There are many situations where a lifeguard's type of supervision can be scrutinized, but the main difference between finding inadequate supervision and adequate supervision depends on the reasonableness of the behavior. Most courts will see that in the course of duty, a lifeguard may tend to a few duties, however the court will usually not excuse liability when there are unacceptable, obvious deviations from the lifeguard's primary duty to supervise the swimming pool and surrounding premises.
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