BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – The owner of a party house is not liable for what happened when an event thrown by renters ended in an unsolved murder.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled June 7 that Alexander Styller - owner of a 5,000 square foot house in Lynnfield that features a large patio, in-ground heated pool and a pool house with a fireplace and bar – can’t be sued for the shooting death of Keivan Heath over Memorial Day weekend in 2016.
Styller rented the house to Woody Victor, who said he was planning to host a college reunion. Instead, more than 100 party-goers showed up for what Victor called on social media “Splash Mansion Pool Party,” open to “Special Invitation & Girls Only.”
Cops were called because of the amount of cars lining the road but left once a path was cleared. At 3 a.m., they received two 911 calls reporting that someone had been shot and was dying.
That someone was Heath, whose estate filed suit under the theory that Styller should be held accountable for renting his house out for an unsafe event.
Chief Justice Kimberly Budd wrote in the opinion that Heath’s estate could not show that short-term rentals are correlated with an increase in violent crime.
“Further, the plaintiff did not allege that anything in Victor’s background posed a risk of violence,” she wrote. “Nor did she point to any information the defendant had about Victor’s planned event that would have made the shooting foreseeable.
“Although the complaint alleges that Victor advertised the event widely, that police had been called to the residence, and that, by 1 a.m., more than 100 people were present, it does not go on to allege that the defendant was aware of any of these facts.”
The shooter’s identity remains unknown. The court’s ruling affirms Essex County judge Timothy Feeley’s decision to grant Styller’s motion to dismiss.