Court Opinion

ID: 9791527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:12:54.695689+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:36.701533
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE KELLEY,
specially concurring:
In reference to the liability of Johnny Horton and Keith Horton for an intentional tort, I would hold that infants below some specific age cannot, as a matter of law, be held liable.
We have held here that in the commission by the infant of an intentional tort the law requires a harmful contact. The infant need not intend the consequences which actually result from the harmful contact, but he must appreciate the fact that the contact may be harmful.
In Benallo v. Bare, 162 Colo. 22, 427 P.2d 323 (1967), we adopted a rule that a child six years of age or younger is incapable of being contributorily negligent as a matter of law. If this is a reasonable presumption, then it seems to me that, at least, in the case of infants three and four years of age, we should hold, as a matter of law, that they are incapable of appreciating that their intentionally tortious contacts may be harmful.