Case Summary

5020 After the defendant host posted an open invitation to a party on a social networking website, party attendees were beaten and stabbed by unknown assailants. The trial court properly sustained a demurrer to the victims' negligence cause of action against the host because posting the invitation was not misfeasance, and the host had no premises liability for failing to protect the plaintiffs from the assailants since he had no special relationship with them, the attack was not foreseeable, and the burden of taking steps to protect guests outweighed the risk of harm. The trial court also properly sustained the host's demurrer to the victims' public nuisance cause of action.

MELTON v BOUSTRED (A Very Bad Party) 183 CA4 521 [See Rowland v Christian 69 C2 108; Sakiyama v AMF Bowling Centers, Inc. 110 CA4 398]