O'Sullivan v. Shaw
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
726 N.E.2d 951 (2000)
O'Sullivan (plaintiff), visiting the Shaws' (defendants) home, dove into the shallow end of their backyard pool at night, when the bottom was not visible, and struck the bottom, sustaining injuries; the pool had a diving board only on the deep end, and the Shaws posted no depth signs and gave no warning about diving into the shallow end. O'Sullivan sued for negligence, and the trial court granted the Shaws summary judgment, finding they owed no duty to warn of the open and obvious danger of diving into the shallow end; O'Sullivan appealed, arguing the state's comparative negligence statute, which abolished assumption of risk as a defense, had implicitly abolished the open-and-obvious-danger rule as well.
Whether a state statute abolishing the assumption-of-risk defense also implicitly abolishes the separate open-and-obvious-danger doctrine limiting a landowner's duty to warn visitors of apparent hazards.