The court in a recent Minnesota case noted there is a distinction between willful and wanton negligence and gross negligence. The plaintiff in the case purchased a home alarm system. Later, the defendant alarm company received a low-temperature alarm but failed to contact the plaintiff or any of the account’s contacts. Later, the low temperature caused a pipe to burst, resulting in damage. The plaintiff filed an action claiming that the action of the alarm company constituted willful and wanton negligence. The alarm company filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted by the District Court. The plaintiff appealed.
The District Court held that the alarm company’s actions did not rise to anything more than ordinary negligence, and therefore the claim was barred by an exculpatory clause in the contract. The court relied heavily on cases from New York in which similar conduct was determined not to amount to gross negligence.