Johnson v. YMCA of Great Falls

651 P.2d 1245
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1982
Docket81-299
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 651 P.2d 1245 (Johnson v. YMCA of Great Falls) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. YMCA of Great Falls, 651 P.2d 1245 (Mo. 1982).

Opinion

651 P.2d 1245 (1982)

Dennis L. JOHNSON, Guardian Ad Litem for Mark L. JOHNSON, an infant, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREAT FALLS, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 81-299.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted September 20, 1982.
Decided October 6, 1982.

*1247 Howard F. Strause, Great Falls, for plaintiff and appellant.

Smith, Baillie & Walsh, Great Falls, for defendant and respondent.

HASWELL, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff sued the Great Falls YMCA for negligence after his son Mark was found submerged in defendant's swimming pool. A jury returned a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. We affirm.

At the outset, we note that appellant's brief does not contain a separate statement of issues presented for review, as required by Rule 23(a)(2), M.R.App.Civ.P., which makes our ferreting out appellant's arguments a more difficult and time-consuming task. Counsel are admonished to conform their briefs to Rules 23 through 27, M.R. App.Civ.P.

In May 1977 Mark brought home from his school one of defendant's brochures. In this brochure was a description of the "Summer Action Club" which was advertised "safe, well-supervised and inexpensive." Upon payment of the required fee, Mark, age six, was enrolled in the Club and his particular class was to run from June 27, 1977, to July 1, 1977. A day's activities in the Club usually concluded with a "free swim" period in defendant's indoor pool, where there was no formal instruction but individual informal instruction was occasionally given. The shallow and deep parts of the pool were divided by a rope.

Pam Boyle, a certified senior lifeguard at the YMCA, gave Mark instructions on how to swim so that he was able to dog-paddle the width of the pool without assistance. On June 30, 1977, the Summer Action Club members had the usual "free swim" period at the end of the day. There were not more than twenty-five people in the pool at this time and attendant at the pool were five counselors, including Boyle and another senior lifeguard. All five were qualified in lifesaving.

The facts surrounding Mark's submersion in the water are in dispute. Missy Blais, one of the junior counselors, stated by affidavit that she noticed Mark playing with two other boys and hanging onto the edge of the pool about two feet from the dividing rope, on the deep end side. A short time later she was summoned by one of the two boys who told her that they had been playing with Mark but he had not come up yet. However, there was other testimony indicating that Mark had been running and had fallen in. At any rate, Blais found Mark submerged in about four and one-half feet of water, six to eight inches from the bottom of the pool and drifting towards the middle of the pool.

Blais and a boy pulled Mark from under the water and yelled for help. What happened next is also in dispute. Blais claimed she carried Mark to the edge of the pool and that Mark was given no mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while in the water. Boyle, on the other hand, testified that she met Blais in the water carrying Mark, grabbed Mark by the hair and swam to the side of the pool. Boyle further testified that, while still in the water, she gave Mark two quick breaths of air, using artificial resuscitation, and Mark vomited. After clearing his mouth out, she gave him two more quick breaths, and he vomited again. Mark was then lifted out of the water where cardio-pulminary resuscitation was administered until ambulance personnel arrived. One of the ambulance personnel (Cherewatenko) testified that when he arrived Mark was unconscious but was breathing and had a weak pulse. Mark was *1248 then taken to the hospital where he stayed for four days, two of which were for observation purposes.

On April 14, 1978, plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that defendant was negligent in the care and supervision of Mark. Defendant answered, denying the negligence allegations and generally contending that defendant had exercised ordinary care in supervising and assisting Mark when he became endangered.

The parties exchanged numerous interrogatories and submitted pretrial memoranda. Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability was denied. At trial, one of the major issues was the length of time Mark was under water. The trial judge admitted, over plaintiff's objection, Boyle's testimony regarding an experiment performed by her thirty minutes after the incident. In this experiment, she threw a diving ring into the pool at the location where Mark was recovered and timed how long it took two young boys (one of whom had helped pull Mark from under the water) to retrieve it. Boyle concluded from this experiment that Mark was under water for about thirty seconds or at the maximum, one to one and one-half minutes. A ten-pound diving weight was also thrown in so that it settled near the drain in the pool, and the boys were unable to retrieve it. From this, Boyle concluded that Mark was not on the bottom of the pool when rescued.

During the trial, plaintiff called psychologists to testify that Mark had a learning disability proximately caused by the lack of oxygen during his submersion in the water. Defendant called the treating physicial who testified that no brain damage had occurred. After receiving the judge's instructions, which included statements addressing the proper standard of care, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. Plaintiff's motion for a new trial was denied, and plaintiff appeals.

The following issues are raised on appeal:

1. Whether the District Court erroneously admitted the testimony regarding the diving ring experiment;

2. Whether plaintiff is entitled to a new trial because of newly discovered evidence or because of defendant's abuse of pretrial discovery;

3. Whether the District Court erroneously instructed the jury on the proper standard of care; and

4. Whether the District Court erred in failing to grant plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.

Initially, appellant argues that Boyle's testimony regarding the diving ring experiment was improperly admitted because the test was not conducted under "substantially similar" conditions. Appellant further argues that Boyle was not qualified as an expert to compare the differences between how a human body would react in water as opposed to the diving ring.

Respondent counters that a sufficient foundation was laid and relies on Hurly v. Star Transfer Company (1962), 141 Mont. 176, 376 P.2d 504. In Hurly, we stated that the trial court has discretion on whether to admit evidence of an experiment and substantial similarity of conditions between the experiment and the actual incident is all that is necessary.

The testimony regarding the diving ring experiment was properly admitted. This evidence supported the conclusion that it took one to one and one-half minutes to retrieve the victim from the pool. Thus, no brain damage could have occurred in view of one doctor's expert testimony that for brain damage to occur the victim must be deprived of oxygen for three to four minutes. Moreover, another doctor testified that lack of oxygen for five minutes is required before brain damage occurs.

Also, the circumstances of the experiment here were substantially similar so as to allow the admission of Boyle's testimony. The experiment was conducted thirty minutes after the incident and involved the same boy who had helped pull Mark out of the water.

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Bluebook (online)
651 P.2d 1245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-ymca-of-great-falls-mont-1982.