Opinion ID: 2135602
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Submission of Improper Specifications of Negligence.

Text: In addition to the challenge lodged to the submission of res ipsa loquitur, the State contends that certain specific acts of negligence that were instructed upon lacked evidentiary support. We have recognized that the purpose of requiring a jury to consider specifications of negligence is to limit the determination of the factual questions arising in negligence claims to only those acts or omissions that the jury might reasonably find from the evidence. Rinkleff v. Knox, 375 N.W.2d 262, 266 (Iowa 1985). Although the State challenges nearly all of the specifications of negligence submitted in the present case, we find deficiencies in only two. These are the specifications relating to the alleged failure to provide safe playground equipment and the alleged failure to instruct Jessica concerning the proper use of that equipment. There was no evidence of any defect in the design of the spiral slide in question that would have caused Jessica to fall therefrom. Plaintiff's theory as to how the slide was defective concerns the existence of a protrusion or notch on which Jessica's scarf became entangled. An expert witness testified that playground equipment should be designed in a manner that minimizes the opportunity for entanglement of clothing. Although we agree that that is a desirable goal, the extent to which this may have been done in a manner practicable under the circumstances has not been demonstrated. We believe that proof of an alternative safer design that is practicable under the circumstances is required in order to generate a jury question on this issue. See Hillrichs v. Avco Corp., 478 N.W.2d 70, 75 (Iowa 1991). Because negligence is behavior that poses an unreasonable danger to others, see Rinkleff, 375 N.W.2d at 265; Evans v. Howard R. Green Co., 231 N.W.2d 907, 913 (Iowa 1975), some objective basis must be present in the record for finding the risk to be unreasonable. We conclude that the evidence in the present case fails to generate a jury question based on a dangerous condition of the slide. The jury should not have been allowed to consider that issue. The State also challenges the trial court's instruction permitting the jury to find the State negligent for failure to instruct Jessica concerning the proper use of the slide. We conclude that this instruction also lacks support in the evidence. To permit a finding of negligence on this theory it must appear that special instruction was needed in order to avoid some hazard specifically attributable to the piece of playground equipment involved in the injury. There is no indication that Jessica's tragic death occurred from any hazard inhering in the slide. It most likely occurred from carelessness in positioning her body on the slide. The type of instruction or admonition that would be relevant to that type of conduct involves advice to be careful and not take chances. A failure to give that type of general admonition does not, in our view, give rise to a fact issue concerning the State's actions in instructing on the proper use of the equipment.