Ravenscroft v. Wash. Water Power Co

In Ravenscroft v. Wash. Water Power Co., 136 Wn.2d 911, 920, 969 P.2d 75 (1998), the plaintiff was injured while boating on the Long Lake reservoir when the boat hit a submerged tree stump. The impact caused the outboard motor to flip onto the boat, hitting the plaintiff in the shoulder. Ravenscroft, 136 Wn.2d at 915. In determining whether the injury-causing condition was artificial, we defined an injury-causing condition as "the specific object or instrumentality that caused the injury, viewed in relation to other external circumstances in which the instrumentality is situated or operates." Ravenscroft, 136 Wn.2d at 921. The Court explained that in Ravenscroft's case the tree stump was the specific object causing the injury and the external circumstance was the landowner's artificial alteration of that stump by manipulation of the watercourse and water level. Ravenscroft, 136 Wn.2d at 921. Thus, the injury-causing condition included both the stump and the artificial control of the water flow and water level.