Issuing an open invitation to a party on MySpace did not set the stage for three men to be beaten and stabbed at the party, a California appeals court has ruled in throwing out a lawsuit against the host.

Clive Boustred

The men alleged Clive Boustred, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, had a “higher social responsibility” because he, in effect, invited the “whole world” to a May 7, 2007 party at his castle-like Soquel Hills, Calif., home by promoting it on MySpace. The party, which attracted more than 100 young people, featured live music and alcoholic beverages.

“[A] homeowner of common sense would know that a public invitation posted on MySpace to a  free party offering music and alcohol was substantially certain to result in an injury to someone,” the plaintiffs –- Cody Melton, Mike Richard Kelly, and Jesse A. Maldonado –- argued. They were allegedly attacked by a group of unknown individuals as they arrived at the party.

“Active conduct” by a property owner can create tort liability for third-party criminal conduct. But in an unpublished March 12 opinion, the 6th District Court of Appeal said the MySpace invitation “did not create the peril that harmed plaintiffs.”

Boustred “merely invited people –- including unknown individuals –- to attend a party at his house,” the court concluded, and “the criminal attack on plaintiffs was not reasonably foreseeable.”

No arrests have been made in the attack but Melton, Kelly and Maldonado claimed Boustred knew or should have known that advertising the party on MySpace would be “highly likely and substantially certain to attract gang members” to his home and he owed them a duty “not to actively create an out-of-control and dangerous public MySpace party.”

“You have a higher social responsibility [and] you should be made accountable,” their attorney, John K. Crowley, said in oral arguments.

The 6th District, however, affirmed a Santa Cruz County trial judge who dismissed the case for failure to state a claim. “Common sense is not the standard for determining duty. Nor is hindsight,” Justice Richard J. McAdams wrote for the court. “Instead, the 'analysis must focus on the foreseeability of harm occurring, not its probability, a more stringent standard.'”

“An injury is reasonably foreseeable only if its occurrence is likely enough in modern daily life that reasonable people would guard against it,” he added.

McAdams also disagreed with the plaintiffs that Boustred should have taken such security measures as restricting the guest list by limiting the MySpace invitation to “friends” only. “Since the assailants who attacked plaintiffs were never identified or apprehended, there is no way to know whether they were among defendant‟s friends, acquaintances, or friends of acquaintances, all of whom presumably could be invited under plaintiffs' proposal,” he observed.

Boustred is chairman of InfoTelesys, a company that was building an ultra-high speed Internet network based on satellite technology. According to his website, construction has been on hold since 2003.

By Matthew Heller
3/16/10