Duty Of Care To Four-Year-Old Guest Using Pool.

A four-year-old drowned in the pool of a home friends of his family rented. His parents brought an action against the homeowners and the property management company. The trial court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the ground defendants owed no duty of care to a guest of the tenants. With regard to the property management company, the appellate court affirmed, but reversed with regard to the homeowners, stating: “We hold as a matter of law that the homeowners here, who knowingly rented a home with a maintained pool, owed a duty of reasonable care to the four-year-old boy to protect him from drowning in the pool. We further hold there are triable issues of fact as to whether, one, the homeowners breached that duty by failing to install a fence around the perimeter of the pool or a self-closing or self-latching mechanism on the only door leading from the house to the pool and, two, whether any such breach was a substantial factor in bringing about the child’s death.” (Johnson v. Prasad  (Cal. App Third Dist.; February 25, 2014) 224 Cal.App.4th 74, [168 Cal.Rptr.3d 196].)