Peters v. Pearce
Peters v. Pearce
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff’s child, aged 4% years, was injured while playing in the road running by defendant’s property, which was not fenced. Defendant had caused saw-logs to be piled on his property, adjacent to the road, to be shipped on the nearby railroad to his sawmill, some two miles distant.
It was by means of this skid pole that the log was dislodged and was caused to roll down into the road and injure plaintiff’s son.
It appears that Blanchard Peters, the 6 year old brother of the injured boy, was attracted to the pile of logs, climbed thereon, moved the skid pole, and caused the log to roll down upon his brother, Garland, aged 4% years.
There was judgment in favor of plaintiff, and defendant has appealed. Plaintiff has answered the ax>peal, and asked for an increase in the amount of the judgment.
“If a pile of cross-ties is so obviously inviting as a plaything for children that it is negligence, per se, for the owner of the premises not to observe and guard against the danger of such temptation, what should we say of any wood pile or lumber stack, a ladder, fruit tree, or any other object not less tempting to children, or less dangerous for them to climb or play upon, than is a pile of cross-ties?”
It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment appealed from be annulled, avoided, and reversed; and that there now be judgment in favor of defendant rejecting plaintiff’s demand and dismissing his suit, at his cos.ts in both courts.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- PETERS v. PEARCE
- Cited By
- 14 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) 1. NEGLIGENCE It was not negligence for defendant to pile sawlogs on his property adjacent to a road, though there was no fence between his property and the road. 2. Negligence Where, in placing a log on top of a pile of logs, one of the skid poles used to roll the logs on the pile was left under one end of the log and protruding from the pile a distance preventing such log from lying snug, the danger of the log rolling down was not so obvious as to constitute negligence in failing to observe and guard against it. 3. Negligence Though a child playing on a pile of logs adjacent to a road was not a trespasser, the owner was under no duty to keep the premises safe, and owed him only the negative duty of not wantonly or maliciously injuring him. 4. Negligence t&wkey;39 — Responsibility por KEEPING THINGS ATTRACTIVE TO CHILDREN DEFINED. The responsibility for having on one’s premises an obviously attractive object dangerous to children must be confined to cases where the dangerous agency is so obviously tempting to children that the owner is guilty of negligence in failing to observe and guard against the temptation and danger. 5. Negligence A pile of sawlogs is not an object so dangerous and attractive to children as to render the owner thereof liable in damages for injury to a child or caused by a child while playing thereon. 6. Negligence &wkey;>7— Care as to children 'AND ADULTS EQUAL. Strangers are not liable to children for negligence in carrying on their business beyond what would be their liability to others equally free from blame.