"Random" operation of a private swimming pool alarm: what compensation for the accident?

The swimming pool is a dangerous place for children under 4 years old: attracted by the water without being aware of the danger, they drown without struggling or crying out.

If he is submerged for less than a minute, he can be saved. Between one and three minutes, he risks serious after-effects, such as quadriplegia, because the lack of oxygen causes irreversible brain damage. Beyond three minutes, it is death.

To prevent drowning, private swimming pools must be equipped with at least one of the following four safety devices: a shelter, an alarm, a barrier, or a cover. The alarm must not be triggered randomly, as the following case reminds us.

On Sunday, July 16, 2017, at around 5 p.m., when ^Ms. X finished her nap on the first floor of a vacation home, she went down to the ground floor and saw her 3-year-old son, A., unconscious, floating on the surface of the swimming pool, whose alarm had not gone off.

She screams and jumps into the pool, the alarm sounds, while neighbors rush in and perform cardiac massage on the child, while waiting for the firefighters to arrive. A. is revived, but he has serious neurological after-effects.

In 2020, Mr. and ^Mrs. X sued Mr. Y, the owner of the vacation home, to obtain compensation for the damages suffered by A. They accused him of not triggering the alarm. He complained that they had "failed to supervise" their son.

Before the accident, A. was napping in his bedroom on the first floor. It had two doors. His parents had locked the one leading to the hallway, but not the one leading to the bathroom. When A. woke up, he went through the bathroom, then to his parents' adjoining bedroom, where they were asleep, without waking them. He opened their second door, which led to a staircase, went downstairs, crossed a room on the ground floor, and went through a glass door opening onto the swimming pool.

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