Justices deny appeal of pool-injury award

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In the decade since he was paralyzed in a diving accident, Shawn Meneely has graduated from college, moved away from his family home in Kennewick and succeeded in Seattle as a financial adviser for others, like himself, with special needs.

Each day of those 10 years — in the hospital, in therapy, in school — the 25-year-old former Tri-Cities basketball star, now a quadriplegic, has hoped for final justice. It may have arrived this week in a one-word ruling from the Washington Supreme Court: "denied."

The decision means the court won't consider an appeal by the National Spa and Pool Institute (NSPI), the Alexandria, Va.-based trade association ordered to pay Meneely $6.6 million of an $11 million verdict. That verdict was handed down two years ago by a Benton County jury for the calamitous backyard pool accident that cost Meneely the use of his limbs and almost his life.

The jury found that the NSPI had known for nearly 30 years that the standards it set matching some diving boards to average backyard pools were unsafe. That information was unearthed by Meneely's lawyers.

"Our goal from the start was to get them to acknowledge that its standards for backyard pools and diving boards are dangerous," Meneely said yesterday from his office at PaineWebber in downtown Seattle. "Now, maybe they'll have to change."

Maybe the NSPI will pay Meneely, as well. The institute sought protection in bankruptcy court, disputing the verdict as the work of a biased, hometown jury and a wrongheaded judge. At the time, NSPI attorneys vowed Meneely would never see a dime.

Yesterday, NSPI general counsel David Karmol said the institute was weighing its "legal options," which have dwindled to one: an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We obviously disagree with the court," Karmol said.

The institute has also set up a trust for Meneely that Karmol said would provide a "full payment" for Meneely should the institute decide this week's ruling "is final and unappealable."

But Karmol bristled when asked about changing standards for so-called Type II pools, the standard backyard swimming pool. The NSPI maintains the pool in which Meneely injured himself in 1991 did not meet NSPI standards - even though the measurements were off only by inches — and shouldn't have been equipped with a diving board.

"We're very concerned that a trade organization can be held liable for something that doesn't comply with its standards," he said.

But the jury and the state Court of Appeals have said the pool was in "substantial compliance" with those standards, which dictate the size and shape of the pool.

"'Substantial compliance' is like saying you're 'mostly pregnant,'" Karmol said. "You either are compliant or you are not."

Fred Zeder, one of Meneely's lawyers, countered: "That would be true, I guess, if you built swimming pools with micrometers. But you don't. You use backhoes."

In this case, the pool was a standard design, with a deep end between 7 and 8 feet deep sloping to shallow water.

Meneely, who was a 6-foot-4 16-year-old, launched himself into a powerful dive and slammed into the upsloping bottom — called the transition wall — breaking his neck.

The NSPI has known for 30 years or more that problems can arise when these types of pools are equipped with diving boards. The institute commissioned a study in 1973 that found that young, strong, tall and lithe boys — boys like Shawn Meneely — were at particular risk. The study was stamped "confidential" and filed away.

Another study, done in the 1980s and unearthed by Zeder during the lawsuit, dealt with a diving board identical to the one from which Meneely jumped. That research showed the board propelled experienced, recreational divers into the transition wall of Type II pools at breakneck speeds six out of every nine dives.

The manufacturer, which settled with Meneely before the trial, was never alerted to that study. Meneely also offered to settle with the NSPI for $160,000, providing the institute would change its standards. The deal was turned down.

"It's time that NSPI does the right thing," Zeder said. "It's time to pay Shawn what they owe him. And its time to re-evaluate this standard in an objective way and give us one that doesn't create more Shawn Meneelys."

Mike Carter can be reached at 206-464-3706. His e-mail address is mcarter@seattletimes.com.