Court ruling against NSPI worries standards groups, trade associations.

The National Spa and Pool Institute (NSPI) was recently targeted by a plaintiffs lawsuit in Seattle, Washington that left the trade association with a $8.8 million judgment. The plaintiff was Shawn Meneely, who became a quadriplegic after diving into the swimming pool at his grandfather's home eleven years ago. (2)

The court awarded Meneely damages from other defendants besides NSPI, but it is the judgment against NSPI that worries standards organizations.

NSPI is a membership association representing pool and spa companies on legislative and regulatory issues in Washington. It also develops pool safety standards through the standards group, American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

In the Meneely case, lawyers charged that NSPI's standards were unsafe and resulted in the injury to their client.

Ironically, the pool in which Meneely was injured did not meet NSPI standards and the company that installed the pool was not an NSPI member. Compliance with such standards is usually enforced by state or local codes, not by the standards developers themselves. Nonetheless, the jury found NSPI's standard at fault.

Leaders of standards development organizations are concerned that judgments such as this could, in the future, deter the private sector from participating in the development of voluntary consensus standards.

While there have been other cases in which courts have found that trade associations and voluntary standards groups are not liable for companies' failure to comply with voluntary standards, the NSPI case is a significant one.

Public safety is in jeopardy if more courts rule against standards developers. Without the private sector to perform the basic public function of setting safety standards for thousands of products, there will be more pressure for government regulation. Besides their responsibility for establishing and updating standards for many thousands of consumer products, private standards setting groups are able to respond much more quickly to revise standards when new data become available or when new technology is introduced that may lead to the production of safer products.

The Washington Post quoted Amy A. Marasco, vice president and general counsel of ANSI, who said that voluntary standards are "a huge benefit to society."

"They make things a lot safer, If they don't do it, the government would have to step in."

The Monitor agrees and believes that consumers would lose should that occur.

(2) Bredemeir, Kenneth, "Rules or Advice: Pool-Safety Cases Target Trade Group," The Washington Post, Nov. 11, 2002.