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Carnell v. Barker Management6/3/2002
2002 Opinion No. 65
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
Stacie Carnell and Morgan McCarthy and Jerry and Cindy Carnell filed separate complaints for wrongful death and personal injury against numerous defendants following the deaths of two children and the injury of another child in a house fire. They appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment as to all defendants.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
This case stems from a house fire that resulted in the deaths of two children and personal injury to a third child. On May 13, 1996, LaDonna Seeley (Seeley) purchased a home in Buhl, Idaho from Ralph and Betty Smith (Smiths). Barker Realty was the Smiths' realty company; Jim Barker (Barker) was a realtor . Seeley moved into the home in mid-August with her daughter, Stacie Carnell (Stacie); Stacie's two children, Cambria Carnell (Cambria) and Morgan McCarthy (Morgan); Seeley's son, Jerry Carnell (Jerry); Jerry's four minor children, Lindsey, Lacey, Alissa, and Brittiny; and Seeley's son, Shane. On August 7, 1996, the Honorable Thomas H. Borreson granted the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) temporary custody of Lindsey, Lacey, Alissa, Brittiny, and Gerald (Jory) Carnell. Jerry and his wife, Cindy, were to have no contact with each other or the children. Because of his young age, Jory remained with Cindy, and the IDHW placed the other four children with their grandmother, Seeley.
The IDHW visited the Seeley home prior to placing the children there and performed a safety inspection of the home. Linda Kirk (Kirk), an IDHW employee, visited the Seeley home and observed that the basement had only one exit. Kirk informed Seeley that the children would require adult supervision any time they were in the basement.
After moving in, Seeley, the other residents of the home, and Cindy, a frequent visitor to the home, began to notice various electrical problems, such as blown fuses and occasional power outages. Seeley contacted Barker about fixing the problem; Seeley recalled Mrs. Smith telling her the home had updated wiring. In October of 1996, Barker solicited bids from electrical contractors to make the necessary repairs at the home. The bid from Phillips Electric Company (Phillips Electric) was accepted, and Phillips Electric performed the repair work in November of 1996. Phillips Electric replaced the fuse box with a circuit breaker box, replaced some wiring to the water heater, and installed new groundings. Other than needing to reset the microwave clock on occasion, the home's occupants did not experience further electrical problems.
On December 18, 1996, a fire occurred in the Seeley home. Jerry left for work around 6:30 a.m. Cindy arrived with Jory that morning, joining Seeley, Stacie, Morgan, Cambria, Brittiny, Shane, and Jamie, Seeley's son who was visiting. Cindy placed Jory down for a nap in a bassinet behind a hide-a-bed in the basement. Cindy and Seeley were talking in the kitchen, and Stacie, on her way to the kitchen, observed Cambria and Brittiny go down to the basement. She did not mention to any of the adults that the children went to the basement. Approximately ten to twenty minutes later, three-year-old Alissa ran up the basement stairs yelling. As she opened the door at the top of the stairs onto the main floor of the house, the smoke detector on the main floor began alerting. The smoke detector in the basement, located behind the closed door of the furnace room, began alerting about the same time. Cindy heard Jory crying, ran downstairs, and saw the fire on and around the hide-a-bed and west wall. She grabbed Jory, who had been burned, and ran upstairs. She looked around the basement,
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