Reech v. Optimist Club of Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Inc.

408 So. 2d 399, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 5697
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 22, 1981
DocketNo. 14471
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 408 So. 2d 399 (Reech v. Optimist Club of Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reech v. Optimist Club of Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Inc., 408 So. 2d 399, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 5697 (La. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

COVINGTON, Judge.

This is a devolutive appeal from a judgment of the district court dismissing the plaintiffs’ suit for damages against the defendants, The Optimist Club of Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Inc., and the club’s liability insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The suit was instituted for personal injuries allegedly sustained by Mrs. Ray Reech on the evening of October 28, 1978, while she was accompanying her three children through a “haunted house” which was sponsored and operated as a Halloween fund-raising project by the Optimist Club. The “house” was arranged with four rooms decorated with Halloween paraphernalia, designed to frighten or startle the patrons as they passed through each room. The house was primarily lighted with black lights and strobe lights to illuminate the passage way to accent the masks and costumes worn by the “actors.” There were also continuous Halloween-type sound effects, such as screams and wolf howls.

The defendants generally denied liability for the injuries and damages sustained; and also pled the affirmative defenses of contributory negligence and/or assumption of risk so as to bar recovery by the plaintiffs.

Mrs. Reech described the incident which resulted in her injuries as follows:

“Q. And this haunted house essentially was not — there is no material difference between this one as far as you know than one that you had been in wherever it was located?
A. Except for that place where you couldn’t see because of the darkness.
Q. And you did expect, although you didn’t expect to be frightened, well, I wouldn’t think an adult would expect to be frightened but you would expect yourself and all the other people be startled from time to time when you hear sound effects or lights or some animation by the people in there. That’s when you’d expect to be startled; would you not?
A. Yes. sir.
And that s what happened; didn’t it? O’
Yes, sir. <!
And obviously you didn’t expect or didn’t intend or didn’t want to get your nose broken but you did expect to have people startled and you expected or anticipated or thought there might be some jostling and pushing around; would you not? O*
Yes, sir. <1
You expected the people in there in front of you or behind you to be startled and jump and perhaps push you or touch you or step on your foot or whatever? O’
On my feet, yes. <1
And the only thing different about this instance from what you anticipated when you went in there was, you didn’t anticipate getting your nose broken? O*
I didn’t anticipate being shoved into a wall.
Well, you didn’t anticipate getting your nose broken but you did anticipate being stepped on, pushed, elbowed and shoved while you were in there? .©
But not so violently. <$
That’s right but answer my question. You did anticipate all those things but you just didn’t anticipate having the result to be your nose getting broken? You anticipated all those things, did you not? O'
To a slight degree, yes. <1
And what’s your best recollection of the people that were involved in your little group were about how many? Q*
Ten to twelve people. <!
Okay. And the size of the group was no particular problem I take it? Q*
What do you mean? <!
Well, I mean, they weren’t being rowdy and the rooms weren’t overcrowded or anything of that nature, I take it? O’
[401]*401A. Not that I remember.
Q. Do you recall whether or not they had any type of sound effects at all?
A. I can’t remember any music. I can remember the screaming and hollering, you know, from people. You could hear those that were in the front of you screaming and then you could [hear those] in the back of you screaming but I don’t know if there was any music.
Q. You don’t know whether they had any type of recorded sound effect whether it be music or not, whether it be goulds [sic] laughing or screeching or other weird Halloween type noises?
A. There were so many noises from— so much noise, different noises from the people, and from those that were dressed up that were masqueraded. I remember hearing those noises.
Q. Now, how far was it when you left that last room you were in into the hall where the incident occurred? How far did you go at that time as you recall before you felt yourself being shoved into the wall?
A. Not very far, a matter or maybe four or five feet.
Q. Had you made the turn at that point?
A. You had to have made the turn to get into the hall.
Q. You did anticipate — and the purpose for going there, if not for you, certainly for your children, was so they could enjoy the thrill, the excitement, the scaring procedure?
A. Right.
Q. And you knew that that was — basically, that’s the total and sole purpose of a haunted house anyway?
A. Yes, it’s part of Halloween.
Q. That’s right. And you know that when the children or the other people whether they be children or grown-ups or otherwise, that when these apparitions suddenly jump out at them, flashing lights and noises, that they will act in a manner that startles, shall we say, sudden movements, backwards, forwards, sideways or otherwise?
A. Yes.”

The plaintiffs claim that the Optimist Club was negligent in its design, construction and operation of the “haunted house” in failing to properly control the movement of patrons through the amusement area and in failing to maintain adequate lighting for safe movement of patrons. We find no merit to this contention. See Bonanno v. Continental Casualty Company, 285 So.2d 591 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1973).

The trial judge, in his oral reasons for judgment, made the following observations and conclusions:

“The testimony is that Optimist Club had members who were stationed at the door and the entrance into the haunted house to control the number of peoples who would enter into the haunted house at one time. Mr. Gremillion said that normally this group was controlled between numbers of fifteen and twenty. That there were attendants available in case there were unruly people who were getting ready to enter into the haunted house and the attendant would be available to go with that group to control it. As Mrs. Reech testified that she did not recall any unruly people in this particular group that she [was] involved with. According to the testimony of Mrs. Reech, Sharon Bordelon and April Reech were one, two, three in the group that went in and as they proceeded through the different halls and rooms of the haunted house, they came to the part where Mrs. Reech got injured.

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408 So. 2d 399, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 5697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reech-v-optimist-club-of-downtown-baton-rouge-louisiana-inc-lactapp-1981.