The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denied wrongdoing Monday in a lawsuit accusing it of negligently allowing a Riverton boy to lose his foot during a youth group lake outing in 2022.
The boy, his brother and four other children went on a boating trip on Boysen Reservoir in Fremont County on Aug. 10, 2022, says the original lawsuit complaint in which the boy’s court-appointed conservator Kelly Rudd sued the church in November.
A woman whom the complaint calls a youth leader for the LDS church pulled the children on a tube behind a speedboat. Rudd’s complaint calls the outing a “church-sanctioned event.”
The boy and his brother sat in the back of the rope. When the woman told one of the children to feed out the rope for the tube, the boy tried to help by releasing the rope, says the complaint.
The complaint says the woman gunned the boat’s accelerator, snapping the coiled rope around the boy’s left foot, severing it as he “screamed in agony.”
The boat engine became flooded, and the group was stranded on the lake, prompting a Life Flight helicopter to take the boy to one hospital, then another — where his foot was later amputated, says the complaint.
“The Church carelessly increased the dangers for the children on the boat,” says Rudd’s complaint, “by failing to provide adequate training and instruction to its Young Men and Young Women group leaders.”
Church Responds
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints responded in an “answer” to the complaint, filed Monday, denying wrongdoing.
Its Young Men and Young Women, or youth groups, may include watersports and other outdoor activities. The boat driver was the president for one of the church’s youth groups, it acknowledged in the answer.
The church also acknowledged that the boy’s left foot was injured, and his brother made a tourniquet for him.
Besides denying that it was negligent in this incident, the church advanced “affirmative defenses:” laws and arguments countering the plaintiffs’ claims.
Those are:
- That the plaintiffs didn’t advance the proper legal mechanisms;
- That any injuries “were caused or contributed to by the acts or omissions of other actors, named or unnamed, over whom (the church had no control and for whom (the church) bears no responsibility.”
- That the Wyoming Recreation Act and, potentially, other recreation laws bar this lawsuit;
- That the independent contractor doctrine (protecting employers) and the volunteer immunity doctrine (protecting charitable institutions) protect the church;
- That Wyoming’s comparative fault statute can spread the liability among all responsible parties according to their percentage of fault;
- That “The injuries are the result of a rare and unforeseen accident that happened in the absence of negligence or lack of due care by the defendant.”
- That other acts that the church didn’t cause or foresee could have caused the injury;
- That the church didn’t own or control the boat;
- And that other defenses may surface.
This case is ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
