Opinion ID: 1429255
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: General Common Law

Text: AMS next argues that Mag Corp owed it a duty of care in the construction, design, and maintenance of the perimeter dike based on general common law principles set out in sections 364 and 365 of the Second Restatement of Torts. We disagree. Section 364 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts reads as follows: A possessor of land is subject to liability to others outside of the land for physical harm caused by a structure or other artificial condition on the land, which the possessor realizes or should realize will involve an unreasonable risk of such harm, if (a) the possessor has created the condition, or (b) the condition is created by a third person with the possessor's consent or acquiescence while the land is in his possession, or (c) the condition is created by a third person without the possessor's consent or acquiescence, but reasonable care is not taken to make the condition safe after the possessor knows or should know of it. Section 365 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts reads in pertinent part: A possessor of land is subject to liability to others outside of the land for physical harm caused by the disrepair of a structure or other artificial condition thereon, if the exercise of reasonable care by the possessor or by any person to whom he entrusts the maintenance and repair thereof (a) would have disclosed the disrepair and the unreasonable risk involved therein, and (b) would have made it reasonably safe by repair or otherwise. As with the statutory provisions discussed above, the dynamic created by the necessity of protecting against flooding renders these provisions inapplicable in this case. Both Restatement sections refer to dangerous conditions created by the possessor of the land. However, it was the rising Lake combined with the severe storm of June 7, 1986, which created the dangerous condition in this case, not Mag Corp. Further, section 365 explicitly exempts our case in comment b. when it states: If a structure suddenly and without the fault of the possessor becomes dangerously dilapidated, the possessor is not subject to liability for any harm done by it to persons outside of the land until he has had an opportunity by the exercise of reasonable care to make the structure safe. In the case before us, the storm on June 7 suddenly and without the fault of Mag Corp dangerously dilapidated the perimeter dike. Thus, Mag Corp was clearly not liable under the Restatement for the damages which followed.