Court Opinion

ID: 9647488
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:38:12.007573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:50.080533
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
concurring.
I wholly concur in Judge Billings’ scholarly and lucid opinion.
This, for me, is not a difficult case. The defendant, for its own profit, established and maintained a landfill in which solid and liquid waste were buried. A deleterious substance escaped into normal drainage channels and caused damage to downstream owners. It is entirely proper that the proprietor, rather than the owners, bear the loss. The principle is similar to that applied in products liability cases such as Elmore v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 673 S.W.2d 434 (Mo. banc 1984).
Just as in products liability cases, the defendant’s fault should not be an issue. I agree that “reasonableness of use” is an appropriate jury submission.
The principal opinion does not “turn back the hands of time” nor does it invoke a “long discredited view.” The dissent quotes numerous learned scholars, but a substantial number of them wrote before the development of products liability law. There seems to be a lack of synchronization between the portions of Restatement of Torts Second, dealing with products liability (§ 402A) and nuisance (§ 822). But restatements are not law.
The principal opinion correctly analyzes and harmonizes the earlier Missouri cases and recognizes that § 822 does not accurately reflect our law. I find both clarification and modernization.