Court Opinion

ID: 9732475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:22:38.653021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:22:50.497000
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
From digesting cases throughout our Nation, it becomes apparent that an owner or possessor of land is not liable for injury to a trespasser caused by the possessor’s failure to exercise reasonable care in having the land in a safe condition. Nonetheless, the prevailing view refuses to extend this immunity to other defendants who are not in possession of the land, i.e., power companies and holders of easements. See, generally, Prosser & Keeton, Torts 5th Ed., Sec. 58. This rule may be further examined by reading 30 A.L.R.3d 778, citing 13 jurisdictions in the United States which accept this prevailing view, namely Texas, Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Kansas. I agree with the majority opinion that the Cooperative, as a holder of a right-of-way easement, could not legally assert Novy’s (landowner’s) defense. This Court should not deviate from its previous precedent in 1984, and new personnel on this Court should not destroy precedential vitality. If our previous decisions are absurd or unjust, we owe a duty to change our reason. Need I mention that it is an old established rule to abide by former precedents, when the same point unfolds again in litigation? It is fitting to keep the scales of justice even and steady. It is good to follow case law which has been previously declared and determined, lest the certain become uncertain. Precedent should not be followed if it is bad law or a mechanical policy of adherence, founded upon fallacious reason. In deciding the cases of today, we should harmoniously adjust and fit together the cases we handed down in the past.
In 1989, Circuit Judge Hertz, writing for this Court in Small v. McKennan Hospital, 437 N.W.2d 194 (S.D.1989) again set forth distinctions of persons who enter upon land of a land occupier, with an underlying scrutiny of determining the standard of care owed to that person depending upon his status. I am not interested in deviating from two recent majority opinions, to now adopt an abrogation of status distinctions based upon a 1989 Law Review article in South Dakota.
I am fearful of the duty of “ordinary or reasonable care under the circumstances” rule. It is a unitary standard of imposing a duty and would make it far easier for landowners or land occupiers to be held liable. Private ownership of land, in this Nation, is under attack by government agencies which are swallowing up land by the hundreds of thousands of acres. Federal, state and county government further engulf private ownership lands with burden*156some rules and regulations. As I have observed this increased activity during my lifetime, I think of the pioneers who settled this country and brought civilization to the frontiers, nearly always searching and seeking a piece of land to enjoy and upon which to raise their families. These early settlers longed for a piece of land of their own. Today, private ownership of land is under attack by nearly every vestige of governmental power. To make it easier to sue landowners and occupiers is another step in the wrong direction. Ownership of land would assume greater perils of litigation. Soon, people will fear to own or occupy land. Therefore, I do not wish to see a broad, generic standard of proof to fit nearly every factual scenario.
Lastly, I wish to note that H-D Electric has pleaded contributory negligence of the horse rider then riding, with gusto, after a run away calf, not to mention an assumption of the risk of injury. H-D Electric has also pleaded that the injuries were caused by other forces and beyond the control of H-D Electric, such as animals. H-D Electric has the opportunity to defend themselves in a jury trial and so has not lost this case outright. I have great confidence in the jury system, a system quite unique when one compares it to other jurisprudential systems. The American people are hard to fool when they are given all of the facts.