One of the earliest reported court decisions involving haunted attraction liability, Bonanno v. Continental Casualty Co. arose from a charitable haunted house in New Orleans. An 84-year-old woman attended the attraction and was injured — either jostled by other patrons or knocked down while fleeing — when a mechanical "devil" figure was projected toward visitors. She sued for her injuries, and the Louisiana Court of Appeal dismissed the claim.
The court's reasoning has proven durable. It held that a haunted house operator has no duty to guard against the predictable reactions of patrons to a scary attraction. The plaintiff, by choosing to enter, had to expect that the purpose of the experience was to cause people to react in "bizarre, frightened and unpredictable ways." Those reactions — jostling, fleeing, stumbling — were not hidden dangers the operator was obligated to prevent. They were the foreseeable, intended consequence of the attraction itself. Having voluntarily entered with knowledge of that purpose, she assumed the risk of injury from those reactions.
The holding is notable for what it did not turn on: the plaintiff's age. The court did not treat the 84-year-old plaintiff differently from any other adult patron. If you choose to enter a haunted house, the court reasoned, the law does not adjust its expectations based on how old or vulnerable you are. Assumption of risk attaches to the voluntary decision to participate, not to the plaintiff's individual characteristics.
The case became a foundational precedent in Louisiana haunt law. It was cited directly by Mays v. Gretna Athletic Boosters (1996), where a patron ran into a wall after being scared, to deny liability on the same theory: the operator is not responsible for the foreseeable fright reactions of its patrons.
Bonanno v. Continental Casualty Co., 285 So.2d 591 (La. App. 4th Cir. 1973).