A cause of action for a swimming pool accident involving a child may arise from the violation of an ordinance requiring a self-closing and self-latching gate around a pool by a property owner, which is negligence per se and does not result in strict liability. However, regardless of a fencing ordinance, a child's parent is not absolved from supervising their own child and preventing them from wandering onto the property where the unfenced pool is located. The statute requiring that all new residential swimming pools, spas, and hot tubs to be equipped with at least one specified pool safety device is not applicable to hold a property owner liable for a child drowning, where the pool is installed before the effective date of the statute. Additionally, a county building code requiring proper door locks is inapplicable to property owner's that own single family homes or duplexes. Thus, such a property owner will not be held liable for negligence of a child drowning under the county building code.

Moreover, with regards to natural bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, streams, and other bodies of water, generally liability will be denied, since the dangers of natural bodies of water should be obvious to children. Therefore, they will not constitute an attractive nuisance, unless an unusual danger or trap exists. The same holds true for man-made lakes, liability will be denied, unless the plaintiff can prove a dangerous condition constituting a trap existed.

The West Palm Beach Child Injury law firm of Sharmin and Sharmin P.A. will work tirelessly to recover all compensation and damages your child and family deserves for an injury or death due to drowning on someone else's property. Call Sharmin & Sharmin P.A. at 1-800-74-TRIAL.