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Menendez v. Paddock Pool Construction Co.12/10/1991
FACTS
Appellant Luis Menendez was an employee and kitchen training supervisor for TGI Friday's, Inc. (TGIF). On the evening of June 29, 1985, TGIF hosted a private party at the La Casita recreational common area of the Dobson Ranch subdivision in Mesa, Arizona. This facility, which included a large in-ground swimming pool and other amenities, was rented that evening by TGIF from 8:00 p.m. to midnight so that about two hundred of its new employees could celebrate their completion of a two-week company training program.
TGIF furnished beer and wine to the partygoers that night. Further, trainees had been told they could "get crazy" at the party and even throw their training supervisors into the swimming pool. By 9:00 p.m., the effects of alcohol consumption became noticeable. At about 9:30 p.m., after at least four supervisors had been pushed or thrown into the La Casita pool, Luis Menendez was seized by several trainees as he was leaving the party. He was then forcibly carried to the pool and thrown headlong into its shallow end where he sustained spinal injuries resulting in quadriplegia.
Luis Menendez and members of his family (hereinafter individually and collectively referred to as Menendez) subsequently sued the appellees and others on multiple theories of liability, alleging in part that the design and construction of the La Casita pool proximately caused his injury . This appeal arises only from the dismissal of the strict liability in tort and negligence counts of the complaint.
In May 1987, the trial court granted various joint and individual motions by appellees American Continental Corporation and Continental Homes (hereinafter jointly designated as Continental), Larry C. Fischer (Fischer), and Paddock Pool Construction Co. and Paddock Pool Engineering Corporation (hereinafter jointly designated as Paddock) to dismiss the strict liability in tort counts of the complaint against them. In January 1988, the court granted motions for summary judgment in favor of Continental, Fischer, and Paddock. This resulted in the dismissal of the negligence counts of the complaint against them. Menendez timely appeals both decisions. We consider each in turn.
Discussion
Strict Liability in Tort
The La Casita pool had its origin in 1978 when Continental solicited bids for the design and construction of a custom, non-diving lap pool of specified dimensions. This pool was to be built at its residential development known as Dobson Ranch. Paddock was awarded the contract, which provided that the pool would be custom designed and have a maximum water depth of three feet to four-and-one-half feet. Construction of the pool was completed in 1979. In January 1980, Continental deeded the La Casita recreational property, including the pool, to the Dobson Homeowners' Association. The homeowners' association thereafter managed the facility, renting it regularly to homeowners' groups.
In the complaint, Menendez alleged several counts of strict liability in tort against (1) Continental as developer and general contractor for the pool, (2) Fischer as a corporate employee thereof, and (3) Paddock as the pool designer and building subcontractor. In its minute entry granting the motions to dismiss these counts, the trial court ruled that Menendez failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The trial court found that the inground pool was not, as a matter of law, a "product" for purposes of strict liability in tort. Noting that such a pool is not manufactured and then introduced into the stream of commerce for sale, the trial court characterized it as a structural imp
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