TaiLexi AI U.S. Case Law

Craft v. Wet'N Wild, Inc.

Craft v. Wet'N Wild, Inc., 489 So. 2d 1221 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986)
Download
Format
Include

Star paging (*137) is kept for pin cites.

Court
District Court of Appeal of Florida · State Appellate Courts
Decided
June 12, 1986
Docket
No. 85-995
Judges
Cobb
Citations
489 So. 2d 122111 Fla. L. Weekly 13391986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8309
Cited by 6 1 descriptions by later courts

Opinion

489 So.2d 1221 (1986)

James Z. CRAFT, Appellant,

v.

WET 'N WILD, INC., Appellee.

No. 85-995.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

June 12, 1986.

*1222 Ronald L. Sims of Hendry, Stoner, Sims & Sawicki, P.A., Orlando, for appellant.

J. Charles Ingram and G.B. McVay Voght of Pitts, Eubanks, Hannah, Hilyard & Marsee, P.A., Orlando, for appellee.

COBB, Chief Judge.

The plaintiff below, James Craft, sued Wet 'N Wild, Inc., as a result of injuries he sustained while riding a large water slide owned and operated by the corporate defendant. Count two of his complaint was predicated on strict liability. The trial court granted a judgment on the pleadings against plaintiff on this count. The issue on appeal, as framed by the plaintiff, is: Can a defect in a water slide amusement attraction manufactured on site by the owner give rise to a cause of action in strict liability?

We agree with the trial judge's negative answer to this question. Principles of strict liability do not apply to structural improvements to real property. Jackson v. L.A.W. Contracting Corp., 481 So.2d 1290 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986); Neumann v. Davis Water and Waste, Inc., 433 So.2d 559 (Fla. 2d DCA), petition for review denied, 441 So.2d 632 (Fla. 1983). The exception to the general rule — i.e., injuries arising from a product manufactured by a defendant and incorporated into an improvement to real property may support a strict liability action [1] — is not relevant to the instant action, which alleges the defectiveness of the structural improvement itself. The plaintiff's cause of action for negligent design was alleged in, and tried pursuant to, count three of his complaint, and is not at issue on this appeal.

AFFIRMED.

ORFINGER, J., concurs.

DAUKSCH, J., concurs specially with opinion.

DAUKSCH, Judge, concurring specially:

Because of the design and construction of this water-slide I agree that strict liability is not available to this plaintiff. This water-slide is built of soil and poured concrete forming a structure not unlike footings for a building. The soil is mounded, shaped, entrenched and the entrenchments concreted. Water is made to flow down and, at various points, pool up, creating simulated mountain stream rapids. The structure is incorporated into the land and is not built upon and attached to the land. Thus, in my opinion the plaintiff could not prove an entitlement to a strict liability instruction under the law as cited in the majority opinion.

NOTES

[1] See Vaughn v. Edward M. Chadbourne, Inc., 462 So.2d 512 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985).

How later courts describe this case

Explanatory parentheticals written by citing courts — 1 in all; the most informative distinct ones are shown.

Cited by 6 cases

View all citing references →
1987: 11988: 11991: 11994: 12007: 12016: 119872026peak 1987 · 1

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. Menendez v. Paddock Pool Construction Co.836 P.2d 968 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1991)
  2. Easterday v. Masiello518 So. 2d 260 (Fla. 1988)
  3. Seitz v. ZAC SMITH & COMPANY, INC.500 So. 2d 706 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1987)
  4. Pamperin v. Interlake Companies, Inc.634 So. 2d 1137 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1994)
  5. Plaza v. Fisher Development, Inc.971 So. 2d 918 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2007)
  6. Simmons v. Rave Motion Pictures Pensacola, L.L.C.197 So. 3d 644 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2016)

Most recent

  1. Simmons v. Rave Motion Pictures Pensacola, L.L.C.197 So. 3d 644 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2016)
  2. Plaza v. Fisher Development, Inc.971 So. 2d 918 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2007)
  3. Pamperin v. Interlake Companies, Inc.634 So. 2d 1137 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1994)
  4. Menendez v. Paddock Pool Construction Co.836 P.2d 968 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1991)
  5. Easterday v. Masiello518 So. 2d 260 (Fla. 1988)
  6. Seitz v. ZAC SMITH & COMPANY, INC.500 So. 2d 706 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1987)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 3

DepthCaseCited by
Neumann v. Water, 433 So. 2d 559 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983) 23
Jackson v. LAW Contracting Corp., 481 So. 2d 1290 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986) 8
Vaughn v. Edward M. Chadbourne, Inc., 462 So. 2d 512 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1985) 4

Keyboard shortcuts

/Focus the search box
j kNext / previous result
EnterOpen the selected result
xAdd / remove the selected result from the download list
n pNext / previous search term in a case
cCopy the citation of the current case
+ −Larger / smaller reading text
?Show this list