Supreme Court Rules that Step-Father Can Be Sued for 2-year-old's Death

The Washington Supreme Court recently overturned a King County Superior Court ruling that dismissed a wrongful death claim against a step-father for the death of a 2 year old girl who drowned in the family swimming pool.

The step-father, Joel Zellmer, was watching his 2 year-old stepdaugther.  He claims he fell asleep and then woke to find the young girls floating in the family pool.  The girls's mother divorced Zellmer and then filed a wrongful death action on behalf of the young girl.  It turns out that Zellmer had taken out a $200,000 life insurance policy on the girl months earlier.  Zellmer's former wives also came forward to state that he had abused their children.

The wrongful death claim against Zellmer was dismissed under a 100 year-old doctrine called the Parential Immunity Doctrine.  The doctrine holds parents immune from being sued for negligence by their children.  There is an exception for reckless and intentional conduct.  The purpose of the Doctrine is to protect the right of parents to raise their children and not punish parents who may be negligent in the supervision of their children, as opposed to those who engage in wanton or willful behavior that leads to the child's injury.

The Supreme Court re-affirmed the Parental Immunity Doctrine as good law, but said there were issues of fact as to whether Zellmer was acting in the capacity of a parent when the child died.  The child's mother submitted evidence to show that Zellmer did not support the child, was not allowed to discipline the child, and did not treat her as is own.  Also, Zellmer was not married to the girl's mother for very long raising the question of whether he was truly a parent to the child.  Therefore, it is up to the jury to decide whether Zellmer was acting as a parent at the time of the child's death.  The case was sent back to the trial court for trial.

In the end I believe the decision was a good one.  It allowed the mother to pursue her claim against Zellmer, which based on the facts, suggests that Zellmer may have had a history of abusing step-children and marrying for pure financial gain.  These facts should come out and the jury should decide.