Opinion ID: 2037499
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: HOREN v COLECO INDUSTRIES

Text: On July 3, 1981, Bill Horen was permanently paralyzed from the chest down when he attempted a shallow or surface-type dive from the deck partially surrounding his in-laws' pool and struck his head on the bottom. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was thirty-three years of age, five feet ten inches tall, and weighed 150 pounds. The pool measured four feet in height and twenty-four feet in diameter and included partial, manufacturer-supplied [40] decking and fencing which totally enclosed the pool and deck area. There was a ladder leading up to the enclosed pool area and another leading into the water. The center of the pool was dug out to a depth of approximately five feet. The water level ranged from approximately three and one-half feet to four and one-half feet. At the time of the accident [t]he pool contained only one small, faded and peeling warning label affixed at the base of a corner of the chain-link wall adjoining the deck, which read: No Diving. Shallow Water. However, Mr. Horen testified that he saw no warning labels or signs in or around the pool to indicate that there should be no diving. He also testified that he was a recreational swimmer of limited swimming and diving experience and that he had never received any diving instruction. [169 Mich App 727.] On the date of the accident, Mr. Horen had not been drinking and was not taking medication. He testified that he had swum in the Coxes' pool once before the accident, had successfully dived from the deck area at that time and on the day of the accident, and, on both occasions, he had seen other adults successfully dive into the pool. Plaintiff acknowledged that he could see the bottom of the pool from the deck, could tell the depth of the water by where it was in relation to his body, that he was aware of some danger of hitting the bottom of the pool, and that he could scrape or bruise himself if he performed a deep dive. However, he believed the Coxes' pool was a safe depth for a surface or shallow-type dive. As in Glittenberg, the thrust of plaintiff's claims is that the defendants breached a duty to warn of the dangers of diving into the pool. The trial court granted the defendants' motion for summary disposition brought pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(8), [41] concluding that, because the danger involved in diving headfirst into an aboveground swimming pool is open and obvious, the pool manufacturer had no duty to warn. The Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court, concluding, as did the panel in Glittenberg, that this Court's holding in Fisher v Johnson Milk Co, Inc, 383 Mich 158; 174 NW2d 752 (1970), that there is no duty to warn of an obvious danger associated with a simple product or tool, had been modified by Owens v Allis-Chalmers Corp, supra . Thus, the panel held, where the injury was reasonably foreseeable, a jury question remained concerning whether the manufacturer used reasonable care in guarding against unreasonable, foreseeable injuries, even where the danger was obvious. [42]