SAN JOSE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A man who got turned around on a waterslide and broke his pelvis when he splashed down has lost his negligence claims against the waterpark.
The Sixth District Court of Appeals of California issued its ruling May 27 in Sean Sharufa’s lawsuit against Festival Fun Parks LLC, holding that a waterslide park owes a heightened duty of care to patrons but there was no evidence that the defendant breached that duty.
But Justice Adrienne Glover and two colleagues on a panel hearing the case overturned judgment for the defendant on Sharufa’s products liability claim, as the record was insufficient to show Raging Waters provided primarily a service rather than use of a product.
“It is conceivable Festival Fun Parks offers services to its patrons to such a degree as to make the use of waterslides secondary… but evidence of that does not appear in the existing record,” Glover wrote.
“As the record is insufficiently developed to answer the legal question of whether the primary purpose of the parties’ transaction was to use a product, summary adjudication should have been denied on the products liability causes of action based on strict liability and negligence theories.”
Sharufa was riding a slide at Raging Waters, sitting on an inner tube, when he accidentally transitioned into a position on his stomach.
When he hit the pool, his feet struck the bottom with enough force to fracture his hip and pelvis. He found a mechanical engineer to testify that going down the slide on one’s stomach could lead to injury because it creates more velocity, but the trial court threw the testimony out.
The trial court granted the defendant summary adjudication on the negligence and products liability claims. Sharufa voluntarily dismissed his negligent misrepresentation claim so he could appeal.