The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-08
BORDER LINES SET
BY SUPREME COURT
Important Opinion Is Handed
Down in a Personal In
jury Case.
MORE LIGHT Is THROWN
UPON "TURNTABLE" ACTIONS
Five-Year-0Id Boy Fails to Re-
cover from Denver &
Rio Grande.

Two border lines have now been set
by the supreme court in what IS
known as turntable" cases, which in
volve the feature of an attractive nuis'
ance, which will control in this state.
The first was set last January in the
case of Lettie A. Brown against the
city to recover damages for the death
OF her S.year-cld son in an unguarded
conduit, The lad, with other play
mates, crept into the unguarded con
duit to play Jail and was drowned.
The court held that the conduit was
an attractive and an alluring nuisance,
and that the city was under obliga-
tions TO exercise reasonable care for the
safety of children who might be al
lured into tho conduit, and since it did
not close the conduit, after being no.
titled that 1T was unguarded, 1t was
liable.
Facts of the Case.
The second line was fixed Saturday
in the case of Albert Smalley, an in
FAINT, by his guardian ad htem,. John
Smaley, against the Denver & Rio
damages anaas -in In tho sum @ Of SIS, 900 for the
loss Of the plaintiff 5 left leg under"
meath q freight car at Ogden Nov. 22,
1905, alleged to have been sustained by
reason of the railway company's ncgli-
gence.
Smalley, only years old. wandered
onto the railway tracks at Twenty first
street, and, after being ordered off, re-
turned and was run over by freight
ear, shunted onto a switch. The doc
trine of an alluring nuisance held, the
court said, but the turntable' cases
did not apply, for the reason that the
so,.l1 hn cxppptaA
ticipate the presence of the lad in the
yards, although no fence surrounded
them.
Tho railway company. as a matter of
law, owed n duty to those rightfully
about its yards or invited there, as in
the case of its employees, but these con
ditions did not exist, and IL was under
no obligation TO use caro- In handling
cars In anticipation of wholly un-
authorized intrusion until tho presence
OF tho intruder was discovered, it was
held The findings did not justify the
conclusion that the railway company
had acquiesced in the general use of the
yards by inhabitants of the neighbor-
hood of the accident.
Judgment Is Affirmed,
The case was tried before Judge j. A.
Howell of the Second district, and a
verdict in favor of the defendant re-
turned. The plaintiff then appealed.
The supreme court affirms the lower
court In the case of Mrs, Brown
against the city the plaintiff asked for
$4,000 damages and was awarded
Fl5UU in Judge Thomas D. Lewis divis-
ION of the Third district court. The
city appealed. The court, in reviewing
the evidence in this case. made this
frank admission concerning its conclu-
sions:
In the ease of Brown against Salt
Lake City, we had occasion to consider
the doctrine announced in the turn
table cases, and there, with considerable
hesitancy, applied it. The doctrine was
there extended further than applied by
some courts. Believing now. as we did
then. that, under the peculiar facts and
circumstances, the doctrine was there
properly applied, we nevertheless are of
the opinion that it was extended about
as FAR as any court has yet applied il.
The opinion was written by Justice
Straup and concurred in by Justices Nc.
Carty and Frick.