Case Name: Marvin W. McKELLAR, Sr., Individually and for Michael McKellar, v. Wallace H. MASON and Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Company
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1964-01-06
Citations: 159 So. 2d 700
Docket Number: No. 1178
Parties: Marvin W. McKELLAR, Sr., Individually and for Michael McKellar, v. Wallace H. MASON and Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Company.
Judges: Before REGAN, SAMUEL and TURNER, JJ-
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 159
Pages: 700–708

Head Matter:
Marvin W. McKELLAR, Sr., Individually and for Michael McKellar, v. Wallace H. MASON and Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Company.
No. 1178.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Fourth Circuit.
Jan. 6, 1964.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 3, 1964.
See also La.App., 154 So.2d 237.
Steven R. Plotkin and PI. Charles Korn, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant.
Sam Monk Zelden and Max Zelden, New Orleans, for Wallace H. Mason, defendant-appellee.
Hammett, Leake & Hammett, H. L. Hammett, New Orleans, for Lumbermen’s Mutual Casualty Co., defendant-appellee.
Before REGAN, SAMUEL and TURNER, JJ-

Opinion:
HENRY F. TURNER, Judge pro tem.
This suit in tort for personal injuries and related items of damage was filed by the plaintiff for himself and for the use and benefit of his minor son who was shot by the defendant, Mason. The defendants are Mason and his liability insurer. Both defendants deny liability on the grounds that the shooting was accidental and in self defense. The insurer also denies liability on the additional grounds that Mason's act in shooting was excluded under the provisions of its policy. There was judgment in the trial court in favor of the defendants dismissing plaintiff's suit. Plaintiff has appealed.
At the time the incident occurred, Michael McKellar was 14 years of age and more than 5 feet 6 inches in height. He and his friend, Leo Schnell, one year younger and about the same height, had scaled a fence at the rear of Mason's property on Saturday, March 30, 1957, and stolen four or more homing pigeons from a coop in the back yard. The following Sunday, March 31, 1957, shortly before 7:15 p. m., a dark, rainy night, the two boys, both wearing dark raincoats, attempted to steal more of Mason's pigeons. Mason fired a 20 gauge shotgun three times from a second floor window of his home. Young Schnell was struck by No. 6 shot. He climbed the fence and left. McKellar was struck in the back by 00 buckshot. His injuries are so serious that he will be a paraplegic for the remainder of his life. The other shot struck a neighbor's garage on the neighbor's side of the rear fence.
After the shooting Mason telephoned the police. They advised him not to go into the yard. A patrolman, Charles Bird, and his partner arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. Bird received the call on the police radio at about 7:15 p. m. and was at the scene five minutes later. Drawing his gun and going into the yard to investigate, he found the McKellar boy lying on the ground approximately 4 feet from the rear of the back fence, 4 feet from the pigeon coop and 30 feet from the house. The boy was taken to a hospital in a police crash truck and Mason gave Bird a 20 gauge semi-automatic Remington shotgun and three empty cartridges, the gun and cartridges Mason had used in the shooting.
A detailed description of the premises involved becomes important. Mason, aged 64 at the time of the incident, and his wife, also in her 60's, lived in a two-story double house at 1711 Pauline Street in the City of New Orleans. The house contained a basement garage opening on Pauline Street and five-room living quarters on the second floor. The other half of the double was exactly the same and both upper residences could be reached by means of one set of steps in the center front. In addition to the garage doors on Pauline Street there were two other doors on the basement level of Mason's half of the house. One was at the back and the other was in the center of the side of the house. Inside the basement itself there was one set of stairs leading to the living quarters. At the top of these stairs was a door closing off the living quarters from the basement. The house was approximately 50 feet wide and 70 feet long, and there was a side yard 120 feet in depth. The width of the side yard was approximately 50 feet.
Mr. Mason raised racing homing pigeons as a hobby. He customarily kept a flock of between 35 and 40 birds, which he testified had a value of from $20.00 to $250.00 each. To house these pigeons he had built a metal coop with a trap door on the top and an entrance door on the right side facing the house. The pigeon coop was about 16 feet long, 10 feet wide and 7 feet high. It was located diagonally away from the house in the far rear corner of the back yard close to the rear and side fences. The yard was enclosed by a wire mesh fence, commonly referred to as a "Page"' fence, 7 feet in height on the rear line, that part of the fence the boys had scaled in entering the yard, and 4 feet in height on the side lines.
The two boys testified that they had stolen several pigeons the previous night and on the night of the shooting had climbed the back fence and entered the yard for the purpose of stealing more pigeons. According to their testimony, they decided to leave when they saw that the pigeon coop was locked. They were several feet from the back fence going towards it when Schnell was struck by one of the shots, the first. McKellar was two or three steps behind Schnell, and he was hit by the buckshot. Both boys testified they did not hear anyone "hollow" to them before the shots were fired.
Mason testified as follows: He did not know that any of his pigeons had been stolen on the previous Saturday night. On the night of the shooting he and his wife were in the front room watching television. He went to the rear of his home to close windows when it began to rain hard. After he had closed the back window of the rear room, a bedroom, he proceeded to close a side window in that room. In doing so he saw three figures with raincoats and slicker hats walking shoulder to shoulder coming from the back of the yard. He became frightened and got his gun, the shotgun, which he kept in the corner of the bedroom. It had been loaded since the close of the deer hunting season approximately three months previously. The three shotgun cartridges with which the gun was loaded were marked No. 6, but at least one was loaded with 00 buckshot (actually there appears to be little or no question that two of the shells were loaded with buckshot). During or before the deer season, he had reloaded several of the cartridges containing No. 6 shot with 00 buckshot. He called to the men to halt when they were at the pigeon house. They disappeared from his view, and he thought they were running towards the house. He was frightened for the life and the safety of his wife and himself because the basement doors were open and one of those doors was only 18 feet from the pigeon coop. He thought the men entered the house through a basement door. He fired three shots into the ground without intending to hit anyone. On two or three previous occasions some of his pigeons had been stolen. For the purpose of emphasis, we quote the testimony in which he stresses his fear:
"I became so frightened when I called them to halt and I didn't see them halt, I saw them disappear, I thought they were coming to my home, my basement doors were open, I was terribly frightened for the life of my wife and myself, I wasn't worried about my property. I didn't know what they were going to do to us so I called them to halt, when they didn't halt and disappeared I didn't know where they were. I started to shoot, they looked like they come this way and I shot that way, I didn't want to hit anybody."
While it is true that Mason made several statements which are contradictory in some respects, when the case is boiled down to what actually took place, we reach the conclusion that in the excitement of finding two or possibly three culprits in the act of committing a felony, that Mason's act in shooting the two thieves, while not completely justified, is excusable, bearing in mind that Mason at the time of the shooting was 64 years old, living with his wife who was in her 60's and was naturally concerned over their personal and physical safety. Mason had read in the daily newspapers, as we all do, of the occurrence of brutal physical assaults on elderly people, and while the action he took was harsh, we are not prepared to say that he exceeded his rights in protecting his domain. The Constitutions of the United States and Louisiana give us the right to keep and bear arms. It follows, logically, that to keep and bear arms gives us the right to use the arms for the intended purpose for which they were manufactured.
We must consider the fact that the situation was brought about entirely by the two young thieves. We also must consider the ages of Mr. and Mrs. Mason when we use the yardstick of the reasonable man of 64 years of age to measure both Mason's emotions and prudence under all of the circumstances disclosed by the record herein, especially the fact that alone with his wife, on a dark, rainy night, he had cause to believe that these were men who may turn out to be assailants of his wife and himself, moving toward him, although it subsequently turned out that he was mistaken in his evaluation of the situation, which was probably due to his genuine apprehension and fear of impending danger.
We don't think the record supports Mason's statement that there was an additional person other than Michael McKellar and the Schnell boy. It is impossible to look into one's mind and tell what he is thinking or what mental reflexes are taking place. We feel, however, that the act of Mason, considering the history of the previous invasions of his property would have justified him in feeling apprehensive for the physical safety of himself and his wife, in taking the harsh action he did resulting in the unfortunate and regrettable maiming of the young McKellar.
Mason testified that he called to the intruders to stop or halt and in the excitement was unable to ascertain in which direction they were going. It was entirely possible that, even if they were attempting to leave the premises, they could have turned and opened fire, or realizing that they had been apprehended would, as is often the custom of a "cornered" person, fight their way out.
We feel, as did the Trial Court, that it would seriously hamper and curtail the citizens in their right to peacefully enjoy all their property to set a precedent by holding that under such circumstances as we find in this case that the occupant of the premises and dwelling must, at his civil peril, investigate first and shoot afterwards instead of shooting first and investigating afterwards, a practice which would usually prove to be disastrous when a citizen was suddenly confronted by thieves or felons.
It may just be coincidental that at the exact moment that the two young thieves were attempting to leave the premises that Mason saw and shot them. We are inclined to believe Mason's statement that he first ordered the culprits to stop or halt and on their failure to do so, and under the mental emotion brought about by the existing dangerous situation, he fired the disastrous shots. Mason had lost some of his valuable pigeons on previous occasions and on this occasion he had no way of knowing whether
or not the culprits had some of his pigeons in their possession. Certainly the fact that he had locked his coop could not eliminate the possibility of thieves bent on taking the pigeons would use wireclippers or some other instrument to cut the wire or break the lock. Our Code of Criminal Procedure, LSA-R.S. IS :61, gives any private person the right to make an arrest when a felony is committed in their presence. LSA-R.S. 15 :64 provides: "Everyone must submit peaceably to a lawful arrest, and, if he resists, any person lawfully arresting him may use such force as may be necessary to overcome the resistance."
The courts have had occasion to consider cases similar to this on at least four occasions: Edwards v. Great American Insurance Co., La.App., 146 So.2d 260; Wilson v. Dimitri, La.App., 138 So.2d 618; Smith v. Delery, La.App., 98 So.2d 899 and 238 La. 180, 114 So.2d 857; Patterson v. Kuntz, La.App., 28 So.2d 278, 283. In each of those cases, recovery was denied the plaintiff. We are not unmindful of the fact that the circumstances in those cases justified the defendants in each case in taking the extreme action which resulted in serious injuries in each case. We recognize that the facts in this case are somewhat less favorable to the defendant than in the cited cases. It is only a matter of degree, and the legal principles involved are nonetheless the same.
In determining what is reasonable conduct, there is no fixed rule. The special facts and environmental characteristics of each case must be considered and treated individually in conformity with the essential civilian judicial technique. Judicially, we are tending more and more toward an appreciation of the truth that in the last analysis there are few absolute rules; there are principally standards and degrees of negligence for the reason that no judge is so gifted with foresight that he can anticipate every possible factual event and prescribe the proper rule for each.
In the Patterson case, the Court reasoned thusly:
"A defendant using force under a reasonable apprehension of danger is not civilly liable to one whom he has cause to believe is his assailant, even though it subsequently appears that he is mistaken.
"The use of a dangerous weapon in order to repel a supposed attack upon defendant's person or that of persons to whom he owes the duty to protect cannot be countenanced as justifiable save where actor's fear of the danger is not only genuine, but is founded on facts which would be likely to produce similar emotions in men of reasonable prudence."
We are in full accord with the foregoing rationale insofar as it applied to the special facts appearing in Patterson v. Kuntz, supra, and other cases of a similar nature; however, in the alternative,' we are of the opinion that the foregoing rule should be re-examined and its rationality extended more realistically to encompass some of the very unusual facts developed herein.
In other words, in each of the foregoing cases, the author of the opinion always emphasized the fact that the defendant therein related that he was in reasonable fear of bodily harm or he was reasonably fearful of bodily harm occuring to some member of his family. This, of course, frequently, .as we have said hereinabove, is unrealistic for the reason that men frequently have repelled attacks under factual situations such as appear in the foregoing cases without fear or apprehension of danger being their primary emotional manifestation. And likewise in those cases, the inference is obvious that the defendants had been the beneficiaries of excellent legal advice prior to making any admissions which could be construed to be prejudicial in view of the rationale emanating from the foregoing cases.
In other words, the doctrine of stare decisis, that is, the case being the philosophical key to the solution of all problems, has no application in Louisiana where it is employed not in its historical function of re-examining a question once decided, but merely as an additional argument available equally to the majority of the Court which feels a former decision is correct, or to a dissenting or concurring judge protesting to the overruling of a decision which he believes to be sound. In Louisiana the doctrine of stare decisis, conceived as such, is a myth. Case law in our jurisprudence has never been-anything more than law de facto and has never indicated the slightest trend of becoming law de jure. Therefore, the Supreme Court and appellate courts of this state show every disposition to follow the essential civilian judicial technique of never letting today become the slave of yesterday or the tyrant of tomorrow.
A careful examination of the jurisprudence will reveal that the Supreme Court of Louisiana overruled more cases during the past quarter of a century than it did during the first hundred years of its existence. Thus, in Louisiana, the doctrine of stare decisis has been more honored in the breach than in the observance.
In the final analysis, our judicial civilization is fundamentally a search for more complete efficiency unencumbered by unrealistic proof emanating from similar defendants who have obviously been coached so that their statements, to a large extent, will fall within the very general rationale laid down by the many cases referred to hereinabove.
In the last analysis, the final cause of law is the welfare of the public and an individual's right must recede in favor of the paramount right of the general public; any rule which misses this aim cannot permanently justify its existence.
A man's home has traditionally been his castle, and he who enters therein with felonious intent does so at his peril.
The District Judge heard the witnesses, weighed the evidence and in the penultimate paragraph of his reasons for judgment stated: "This court cannot say that defendant's reaction under the circumstances was not that of a prudent man." After a careful consideration of the entire record and a review of the four cases above cited, we conclude that the judgment of the lower court was correct and is, therefore, affirmed.
Affirmed.
SAMUEL, J., dissents with written reasons.