Murray v. Ramada Inns, Inc.

521 So.2d 1123 (La. 1988)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P and two of his brothers were doing shallow water dives in the pool at D's Motel. P struck his head on the bottom of the pool and suffered instant paralysis, from which he never recovered. He died of his injuries five months later. P's wife and son brought a wrongful death action. There was no lifeguard was on duty at the time of the accident, and that the absence of a lifeguard was a violation of the Louisiana Sanitary Code. It was further established that there were no signs in the area which warned against diving into the shallow end of the pool, even though other D pools at other locations had signs which prohibited diving. Other testimony indicated that the motel had previously removed the diving board from the pool, in order to curtail diving. P knew that such diving was dangerous and had warned his brothers to 'be careful' while diving into the pool. There was also a sign near the pool which stated: 'NO LIFEGUARD--SWIM AT OWN RISK.' D wanted an instruction assumption of risk. The trial judge refused. The jury further assessed P's negligence at 50% and awarded $250,000 in damages (before reduction for comparative negligence) to each plaintiff. Ds appealed. The following question was certified to the Louisiana court.