Retention ponds regulations limited in Butler County

Homeowners enjoy being near ponds and streams, but having those bodies of water near residences sometimes comes at a terrible price.

Early last week, a 9-month-old girl drowned after her stroller somehow rolled into a retention pond at a West Chester Twp. subdivision. Now many area residents are wondering who is responsible for incidents that occur in such bodies of water and why subdivisions need such structures in the first place.

In a June 2001 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court of Ohio ruled owners were responsible for injuries to trespassing children in cases where the the injury was caused by an artificial condition on the property.

A swimming pool is the most common example of an artificial condition that could lead to injury, according to the Ohio State Bar Association.

A landowner is not automatically responsible for injuries to trespassing children, but can be found liable by a judge or jury if the harmed party can provide six separate conditions, according to the association.

Ohio courts would likely look at a pond in a different light, said Anthony Castelli, an area attorney who focuses his practice on personal injury cases.

Lets say people are fishing in a pond, theyre not going to make everybody fence their pond, Castelli said. Its an open and obvious condition thats not an unreasonable risk because everybody knows that water can create a problem.

For a factor to be attractive nuisance cases, it must first entice a child onto the property. Retention ponds dont fit that description, he said.

The general consensus regarding such bodies of water is that young children should be tended to by their parents and that older children should already appreciate the danger involved, Castelli said.

In the situation that (occurred last week), the child wasnt enticed, so its not an attractive nuisance, he said. If I was going to try to go after anybody, I would find out, number one, how did the people in charge of this baby carriage lose control or could you find that whoever built that (retention pond) built in negligently.

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Retention ponds regulations limited in Butler County