Court Opinion

ID: 9825025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 11:56:06.362046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:57.254818
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING.
It is urged that the general rule that a landowner Owes a trespasser or bare licensee no duty except not to intentionally or wantonly injure him is abrogated or modified by section 906, St. Okla. 1890 (section 998, Rev. Laws 1910), which reads as follows :
“Every one is responsible, not only for the.result of his willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself.”
Besides our own, the same provision is found in the statutes of Dakota Territory (whence we derived it), California, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and possibly other states; but we have been unable to find a case in which the precise question here has been determined in any jurisdiction.
In the case of Beinhorn v. Griswold, 27 Mont. 79, 69 Pac. 557, 59 L. R. A. 771, 94 Am. St. Rep. 818, however, where the question was as to whether this provision changed the general rule so as to charge a landowner with the duty of protecting the cattle of. another lawfully at large from a dangerous condition of his land upon which they trespassed, the court said:
“Counsel invoke the provisions of section 2296 of the Civil Code 1895 [Rev. Codes, sec. 5077], which is declaratory of the common law [here quoting the above quoted provision], * * * To a naked trespasser or mere licensee by sufferance (if the expression may correctly be used) the landowner owes the duty to *15refrain from any willful or wanton act causing injury to his pér-son or chattels, and, after discovering that the trespasser is in imminent danger or immediate peril, to use reasonable care,” etc.
In the case of Winfrey v. M., K. & T. R. Co., 194 Fed. 808, 114 C. C. A. 218, which seems to be the only case in which this provision in our own statutes has been specifically considered, it was held not to have modified the rule as to contributory negligence; and in doing so reference was made to the fact that, notwithstanding this provision was enacted in 1890, and the subsequent decision by our court of many cases involving the question of contributory negligence, “the rigid rule of nonliability in case of any contributory negligence has been adhered to.”
Unless the case of Patterson v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., 16 S. D. 33, 91 N. W. 336, which involves the duty of a landlord to his tenant, riray be so regarded, we have been unable to find any case indicating that this provision has, in any jurisdiction, been regarded as more than a declaration of a general rule of the common law, which is limited by other common-law rules; and, notwithstanding its long standing in our statutes, our own court has repeatedly and uniformly held (as will be seen by reference to the cases cited in the original opinion and to their citations), following the common law, that a landowner owes a trespasser or mere licensee no duty except not to injure him intentionally or wantonly.
We deem it unnecessary to determine whether, as indicated by the Montana court, this provision is merely declaratory of the common law further than as the same is applicable in the present case; but in view of the foregoing considerations, we are constrained to hold that this statute is merely so declaratory, and does not change or affect that other common-law rule that a landowner owes a trespasser or bare licensee no duty except not to intentionally or wantonly injure him.
For the reasons stated, the petition for rehearing should be denied.
By the Court: It is so ordered.