Court Opinion

ID: 9748232
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:56:30.532525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:33.306733
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, J.,
concurring.
I completely concur in Justice Goldberg’s well-written opinion that the Recreational Use Statute, G.L. 1956 chapter 6 of title 32, effectively bars suit in this *1054case against the Preservation Society of Newport but does not do so against the City of Newport. To hold otherwise would require this Court to embrace a conclusion that the landowner, saturated with the knowledge that some feature of his land presents a clear and present danger to completely innocent users, simply could adopt a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” attitude and use the statute as a shield from liability. I cannot begin to conceive that the General Assembly had any such intent; to conclude otherwise would be beyond absurd. See Ellis v. Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, 586 A.2d 1055, 1057 (R.I.1991) (“[E]ven in circumstances in which a statute is clear and unambiguous, a statute will not be interpreted literally when such a construction will lead to an absurd result or one at odds with the legislative intent.”); Sugarman v. Lewis, 488 A.2d 709, 711 (R.I.1985) (“A statute should not be interpreted literally, however, even though clear and unambiguous, when such a construction will lead to a result at odds with the legislative intent.”); Kingsley v. Miller, 120 R.I. 372, 376, 388 A.2d 357, 360 (1978) (“[A] literal reading of a statute may be ignored if it does not convey a sensible meaning or where it defeats an evident legislative purpose.”). A contrary holding in this case would provide an incentive to landowners to be callous and altogether irresponsible with respect to the safety of people entering upon their land for simple recreational pleasure, in the face of danger known to the owner, but of which the recreational user is totally unaware.