Court to Rule on Liability in Home Projects

The California Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether a homeowner who makes do-it-yourself improvements is liable for injuries caused by those improvements even well after the home is sold to someone else.

Six of the seven high court justices voted to decide the issue. Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird did not participate in the decision.

The case involves a family that built a decorative pond in the backyard of its San Fernando Valley home in 1972 and then sold the house.

The house had been leased to a third family in 1976 when 22-month-old Clinton Preston fell into the pond. By the time he was found, he had suffered severe brain damage and was paralyzed.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the Prestons’ suit against the original homeowners, Jon and Marion Kubichan, and found they were not liable because they no longer owned the home. The suit claimed they had built the small pond improperly by not including a protective barrier around it.

In February, a state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled that the Prestons could press their suit, saying the Kubichans “actually created the alleged unreasonably dangerous condition, which was a substantial factor in causing (the boy’s) injury.” That ruling is placed on hold pending the high court’s action. (Preston vs. Goldman, L.A. 32065)