Is Association Liable for Child’s Injury at Party?

By Don Kramer
From Nonprofit Issues

What happens when members of your board hold a party at their home for participants in your program and one of the participants gets hurt? Is your organization liable for damages?

An appellate court in Missouri has affirmed dismissal of a case against a local sports association on the ground that a party was purely a private affair, not authorized, supervised or controlled by the association. (Stitt v. Raytown Sports Association, Ct. of App., W. Dist., WD 53894, 2/10/98.)

A six year old baseball player nearly drowned at a pool party at the home of parents of team members at the close of the season. The parents, who were also members of the Board of the association, held the party to give out league participation trophies and accept return of the kids’ uniforms. The injured child’s parents sued the host parents and the association for damages, including claims that the association failed to properly supervise and train personnel in pool safety and for "approving an end-of-year party or negligently allowing an end-of-year party without prior permission" of the association.

The association moved for summary judgment to dismiss the case on multiple grounds. It alleged that it did not have control over the party, did not request the party, did not approve the party, did not receive notice of the party, did not plan the party, and did not provide food or beverages for the party.

The Court agreed that the association’s motion should be granted unless the child’s parents could show that some material facts were genuinely disputed. The parents tried two arguments.

First they said that because the host parents were on the Board, they were agents of the association. The Court said there were no allegations that the host parents were acting on behalf of the association in holding the party and that mere membership on the board was not sufficient to show agency.

Second, the parents argued that the party was part of a "custom and practice" of the league at the end of the season. The Court said even if it were a custom and practice, there was no showing that the association exercised supervision and control over the event.

The Court concluded that the association had no duty under the circumstances to protect the child from injury at the party.

What You Need to Know

This issue is not confined to sports associations. It affects the college alumni fund raising party at the home of the Class of ‘60’s president, the cast party of the theater group after the show, the social work department’s annual picnic, any "event" in which someone associated with your organization socializes outside of his or her regular duties with participants in your program.

How do you deal with it? To prohibit such conduct would probably inhibit your program. To supervise or control every such "event" may be impossible, although a certain degree of formality may lessen the risk of injuries.

At the very least, you want to be sure that you are insured for any acts of employees and volunteers which are found to be within your supervision or control. You may also want to be sure that your employees and volunteers have adequate insurance of their own if they are going to host such "events."

It is the kind of issue that ought to be discussed in advance. It’s too late after the porch deck has collapsed and six of your best donors have been seriously injured.

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Excerpted from the March 1998 issue of Don Kramer’s Nonprofit Issues®.

Found in the Energize website library at: http://www.energizeinc.com/art.html