Swimming pool accidents can be some of the most tragic accident types; most commonly involving children, these accidents typically result in severe injuries or death. When a swimming pool accident causes injury or death to a person or child in Pennsylvania, determining liability is important.
Pennsylvania Premises Liability Laws
Premises liability laws are a collection of legislation that require a property owner to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition. Premises liability laws apply to all types of property owners, private, commercial, and public. When an injury occurs on another’s property, then, premises liability laws will be applied.
Types of Tort-based Claims
There are two types of tort-based claims for swimming pool accident causes an injury. The first is a strict liability claim; the second is a negligence-based claim. The first implies that the property was so inherently dangerous that negligence need not be proven; the latter suggests that the property owner failed to exercise reasonable and ordinary care to prevent an accident from occurring.
Regarding a swimming pool accident, if the walking area around the pool is in disrepair, leading to a fractured tailbone from a slip and fall accident for example, then the property owner may be considered negligent, and therefore liable.
Attractive Nuisance Doctrine in Pennsylvania
If the person hurt in the swimming pool accident was a trespasser, then the property owner typically is not liable. In the vast majority of cases, a property owner has no obligation to trespassers except to not cause willful harm. However, the trespasser was a child, then the doctrine of attractive nuisance may apply.
The doctrine of attractive nuisance suggests that there are certain features on a property that are naturally attractive to a child, such as a swimming pool. Because of this, and because children lack the ability to think critically or reason about dangers, landowners must take action to keep children away from the ‘attractive nuisance.’
As such, a property owner may be required to put up signs or a fence implying that children should keep out; if no action to keep children out is taken, and a child gets hurt in the pool, then the property owner may be held liable.
Learn More about Swimming Pool Liability
Losing a loved in a swimming pool accident can be a shocking experience. To guide you through the act of determining liability, and to help you file a claim for damages, the attorneys at Cordisco & Saile LLC want to represent you. For a free case consultation, call us now at 215-642-2335
