Otis Felder (Partner-San Francisco, CA) obtained dismissal of a marina on a demurrer sustained before the Shasta County Superior Court. In this case, plaintiff alleged he fell off the top deck of a houseboat where he had ventured during the night with a female companion (not his wife) before he had to turn himself in the next morning to serve a prison sentence. In his complaint, he alleged that a deck railing, which appeared perfectly safe, gave way when he leaned on it while engaging in a social activity. The co-defendant grandmother houseboat owner provided in her responses to interrogatories that she had not given the plaintiff permission to "recklessly have drunken intercourse on the roof of the houseboat." While the court denied judicial notice of the grandmother's testimony, it sustained the demurrer finding that generally one does not owe a duty to control another or to warn of endangerment by conduct of other. It stated an exception to this "no-duty-to-protect" rule exists for cases in which the defendant has a special relationship with either (1) the dangerous third party that entails an ability to control them (e.g., parents and children, colleges and students, employers and employees) or (2) the victim where the victim expects protection from the defendant. In this case, the court rejected that the defendant marina had the ability to control the houseboat owner with respect to maintenance of the railing and that there was no special relationship between it and the plaintiff. As no facts could be alleged to create such a relationship, the court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend.