Babula v. Robertson

In Babula v. Robertson, 212 Mich App 45, 54; 536 NW2d 834 (1995), the plaintiff mother dropped her nine-year-old child off one morning at the home of the child's aunt and uncle; the aunt having agreed to baby-sit. The defendant aunt, Janice Robertson, returned to bed for a few minutes, during which time the defendant uncle, Brian Robertson, who had come home several hours earlier drunk and not speaking clearly, molested the child. The plaintiff brought a negligence action against her sister, the child's aunt. The circuit court granted summary disposition to the defendant aunt, concluding that although the aunt had voluntarily assumed control over the child's safety and thus had a duty to use reasonable care in ensuring that the child's well-being was not endangered, the uncle's acts were wholly unforeseeable. The Court concluded that the aunt's general duty of care while baby-sitting did not extend to the specific harm inflicted by the uncle. Babula, supra at 51-52.