Court Opinion

ID: 9658320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:55:19.80822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:53.599576
License: Public Domain

Gordon, J.
(dissenting). I must respectfully dissent. The majority opinion, in effect, holds that parents are obliged as a matter of law to warn their baby-sitter of the location of the basement stairway. Since stairs are the common and ordinary means of going from one floor to another, a householder should not be under a legal duty to describe their existence or explain their use.
In Szep v. Robinson (1963), 20 Wis. (2d) 284, 121 N. W. (2d) 753, we held that as a matter of law parents were not liable to a baby-sitter who ignited her clothing while using the electric stove. We recognized in that case, at page 291, that one would be liable to a baby-sitter “for any injuries sustained by the baby-sitter in the performance of her services, when it is reasonable to foresee that harm will result.”
The majority opinion properly rejects the baby-sitter’s claim of negligence based upon the householder’s failure to lock the basement door. This would be “an unreasonable requirement,” says the majority opinion. In my view, it is *443similarly unreasonable to require the householder to warn a baby-sitter as to the situs of the basement steps.
The majority opinion has adopted an interpretation of the following words of the complaint which are part of the plaintiff’s claim as to the householder’s negligence: “. . . failing to have said hallway and the basement stairs sufficiently lighted.” These words are construed in the majority opinion to mean that there was no means of turning on a light. I am bewildered by this interpretation. If the plaintiff had intended to complain of the absence of a fixture or of the absence of any electrical installation, I believe she would have used different language than to have said simply that the hallway and stairs were not “sufficiently lighted.”
I believe that we should affirm the trial court’s order which sustained the demurrer.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Hallows and Mr. Justice Wilkie join in this dissent.