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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

ROBERT VINCENT WATKINS, JR., Plaintiff-Appellant, v ST. FRANCIS CAMP ON THE LAKE, Defendant-Appellee.

UNPUBLISHED September 28, 2010

No. 292578 Hillsdale Circuit Court LC No. 08-000601-NI

Before: MURPHY, C.J., and SAWYER and MURRAY, JJ. PER CURIAM. Plaintiff Robert Watkins, Jr., appeals by leave granted the trial court's June 1, 2009, order granting defendant summary disposition, and its order denying his motion to amend. We affirm. I. FACTS Plaintiff, who is disabled, was injured using a water slide at a summer camp that defendant St. Francis Camp on the Lake runs for people with special needs. Plaintiff, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair because he is a quadriplegic, was approximately 34 years old at the time of the accident and was living with his parents. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was employed at the Roscommon county courthouse as a mail clerk, where he worked for the previous 15 years for about 20 hours per week. Plaintiff did not have a legal guardian. A water slide was at the camp. The water slide consisted of a tarp, which was approximately 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, placed on a hill. Water was then sprayed onto the tarp and soap was put onto the campers so that the campers would slide down the tarp faster. Some of the campers would use inner tubes when going down the hill and some would slide down the hill on their buttocks. At the bottom of the slide was a "little ditch," which was approximately two and one-half feet long, two feet wide, and 12 to 18 inches deep. There was water and mud in the ditch, and if a camper hit the ditch when sliding down the hill, which "pretty much everybody hit the ditch," the camper would flip. Robert Seger was a camp counselor while plaintiff was at the camp. Seger indicated that the camp basically "let the campers decide what they feel they can and can't do. They try not to place any limitations on anybody. They want them to have the best experience possible there." Camp counselors kept notes throughout the week about the campers. Seger's notes about -1-

plaintiff reflected, "July 15th, Sunday. Robert W. excited to be at the new camp. Very happy and pleasant all day. Likes to try new things and is determined to do as much as he can do on his own." Seger's notes also reflected, "July 17th, Tuesday. Robert W. says he really likes the camp. The best one he has been to. Took him on the slip and slide. He does not let his physical limitations stop him from trying anything new. He loves the water slide."1 Seger testified that, on Tuesday, plaintiff went down the water slide four or five times. Seger testified that plaintiff was loaded onto a tube at the top of the hill, then a camp counselor sat in a tube behind plaintiff's tube and went down the hill holding onto plaintiff's tube. Plaintiff was subsequently loaded onto a golf cart and driven back up to the top of the hill. On Wednesday, plaintiff went down the water slide approximately four more times. Seger testified: So Robby rolled a couple times, got up laughing. It was fine the first day. And that's when, I believe the second day, he really took a good flip. Elizabeth went down with him on the slide as well. I believe that's the day he might have, when he rolled might have hit his foot on the ground too hard. He might have caught it in the ditch down at the bottom. I am not quite too sure exactly the circumstances that led to bones being broken in his foot. But when he complained about it I noticed the bruising and said something to the nurse and had her examine it. Seger further testified regarding the last two times that plaintiff went down the water slide on Wednesday: The third time I do remember him flipping. He went one time after that which he flipped as well. So

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Michigan Law