Property Owners May Be Liable for Defective Products Offered to Guests by a Third-Party Tenant

Abstract

Based on the theory of strict liability the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of a plaintiff who sued a resort operator for injuries she sustained from recreational equipment that she rented from a commercial tenant of the resort. The resort owner and equipment-rental operator were closely allied regarding promoting the equipment to the resort's guests, and a lessor-leasee relationship clearly existed between them. Florida's supreme court determined that the strict-liability doctrine is not limited to manufacturers and distributors of defective products but also applies to commercial renters of such products. The court went on to hold the resort liable because it leased property to an outsider who rented sailboats and because the resort was actively involved in marketing those sailboats to the resort's guests. In fact, the resort's active marketing of the sailboats to its guests may have tilted the scale in favor of the finding of liability on the part of the resort. Also, the court inferentially alluded to an apparent-agency theory of responsibility based on representations of ownership and control normally associated with franchiser-franchisee responsibility.