Court Opinion

ID: 9758997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:59:17.156471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:57.912213
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
dissenting:
In this case involving serious injuries to a nine year old boy who jumped from a moving railroad car which he had “hopped” a short time before, the majority has granted a new trial with respect to the verdict against the City of Philadelphia. In my judgment, the evidence failed to establish that the City of Philadelphia was legally responsible for this unfortunate accident. I conclude, therefore, that a *78judgment n.o.v. should have been entered in favor of the City.
On June 4, 1974, nine year old Edward Scarborough sustained severe leg injuries when he jumped from a moving railroad car which he had boarded while playing upon property owned by the Reading Company. The boy had gained access to the railroad tracks by climbing through a hole in a chain link fence which had been installed by the City of Philadelphia at the end of Thirteenth and McFerran Streets. Edward’s mother, Patricia Scarborough, commenced an action in trespass on behalf of her son and in her own right against Andrew L. Lewis and Joseph L. Castle, trustees of the Reading Company, alleging Reading’s negligence in its operation of the train and in its failure to take adequate measures to prevent the minor plaintiff from gaining access to the railroad tracks. Thereafter, the City of Philadelphia was joined as an additional defendant on grounds that it had failed to keep the fence in repair and had thereby breached a duty owed to the minor to protect him from the dangerous condition created by the movement of trains on the railroad’s property.
Throughout the trial, the City contended that the law did not impose upon it a duty to protect the minor plaintiff from dangerous activities being conducted on land owned by another. The City moved for a compulsory non-suit at the close of the plaintiffs’ case, but the motion was summarily denied by the trial court. After both parties had rested, the City moved for a directed verdict. This was also denied. The City also submitted points for charge requesting the trial court to instruct the jury that the City owed no duty to repair defective conditions maintained on property not owned by the City or to protect citizens from dangerous activities conducted on private property by other persons. The alleged failure of the evidence to establish a legally cognizable cause of action against the City was again raised by the City in a post-trial motion for judgment n.o.v. Finally, whether the City breached a duty owed to the minor plaintiff and thereby became liable to him for injuries *79sustained while playing upon the railroad’s land, has been argued on appeal in this Court. It appears, therefore, that the City has raised the alleged nonexistence of a legally cognizable cause of action against it at every opportunity. The nature of the City’s duty, therefore, is an issue which has not been waived but which has been preserved for appellate review and which deserves our attention. Because the majority holds otherwise, I respectfully dissent.
As a general rule, a municipality has no duty to erect a fence to deter persons on the streets of the municipality from entering adjacent property. Kearns v. Rollins Outdoor Advertising, Inc., 89 Pa.Cmwlth. 596, 492 A.2d 1204 (1985). The law has not imposed upon a municipality a duty to erect fencing or other protective devices to deter trespassing children from entering the property of a third person and there encountering a dangerous condition not created or maintained by the municipality and over which it has no direct control. Kearns v. Rollins Outdoor Advertising, Inc., supra. See also: Heller v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 576 F.Supp. 6 (E.D.Pa.1982), aff'd, 720 F.2d 662 (3d Cir.1983); Cousins v. Yaeger, 394 F.Supp. 595 (E.D.Pa.1975). Indeed, “[t]he imposition of a duty to fence one’s land which adjoins a railroad right of way would ... produce an incongruous result since the Pennsylvania cases hold that there is ordinarily no duty on a railroad to fence its right of way to prevent children from trespassing.” Id. at 605.
It was contended by the plaintiffs, however, that when the City undertook to erect a fence at the end of its street, it thereby became liable if a child were causally injured because of the City’s failure thereafter to keep the fence in repair.1 Specifically, plaintiffs relied upon Section 323 of *80the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which provides as follows:
One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other’s person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking, if
(a) his failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or
(b) the harm is suffered because of the other’s reliance upon the undertaking.
This section recognizes that liability for harm resulting from the failure to exercise reasonable care may result where (1) the failure to exercise reasonable care has increased the risk of harm or (2) the harm is suffered because of the other’s reliance upon the undertaking. In the instant case, however, neither of these elements was established by plaintiffs’ evidence.
There was no proof that the City’s failure to repair the hole in the fence increased the risk that children such as *81Edward Scarborough would enter the railroad yard and be injured by a moving train. At the very worst, the City's failure to repair the fence created the same risk of children entering upon the railroad tracks as would have existed if the City had not undertaken to erect and maintain the chain link fence at the end of the street. Moreover, the evidence established clearly that the harm to the Scarborough boy did not result from his reliance upon the City to maintain the fence. Children in the neighborhood had placed a backboard and basket at Thirteenth and McFerran Streets. Scarborough had been playing there on June 24,1974, when the basketball rolled through the fence and down an embankment to the railroad tracks of the Reading Company. He followed the ball, retrieved it, and returned it to the top of the embankment. Because he heard a moving train, he then descended to the tracks once again, where he jumped aboard one of the cars of a moving train. After riding the train for a brief period, he attempted to jump from the moving train. His attempt to jump proved disastrous, however, and his legs were amputated as they fell beneath the wheels of the moving train. It is apparent from these facts that the harm which came to the young boy was not the result of his reliance upon the fence to prevent him or his ball from descending to the railroad tracks. The ball had been retrieved, and Scarborough had returned safely to street level. Only then did he make an affirmative decision — a decision having no relationship whatsoever to the existence of the fence or the hole in it — to return to the tracks and hop the freight. In doing so, he intentionally ignored the fence which had been erected by the City and willfully encountered the thrill and also the risks inherent in. jumping on and off a moving train. The fence was not intended to protect Scarborough from such risks, and the evidence is clear that he did not rely upon it to do so. I would conclude, therefore, that liability against the City cannot properly be based on Section 323 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts.
*82It seems clear, moreover, that the City’s failure to repair the fence was not the legal or proximate cause of Scarborough’s injuries. As we have already observed, the basketball had been retrieved and returned to the street when Scarborough determined to return to the tracks and ride the passing train. The fence, even without a hole, was not intended to prevent and, indeed, could not have prevented Scarborough from realizing this desire to ride the train. The evidence was clear that access to the tracks existed at various points and in various ways if an adult or child wished to descend to the railroad tracks. In short, the fence at Thirteenth and McFerran Streets was not intended to prevent access to the railroad tracks. Even Scarborough conceded that he could and, in fact, had achieved access to the tracks on prior occasions for the purpose of boarding passing trains. Therefore, even assuming for purposes of argument that the City negligently maintained the chain link fence, its negligence was superseded by the voluntary and deliberate decision by Edward Scarborough, after he had returned safely with the loose ball, to return to the railroad tracks for the purpose of engaging in the sport and thrill of hopping a passing train. As a matter of law, under these circumstances, the City of Philadelphia cannot be held liable to the minor plaintiff for injuries sustained when he jumped from a moving train. The City was entitled to a judgment n.o.v., and the trial court’s denial thereof was error.
I would reverse the judgment and remand for the entry of judgment in favor of the City of Philadelphia.2

. The plaintiffs also contended at trial that the City should be held liable because the city police, by failing to discover, report or repair the defect in the fence at the end of Thirteenth and McFerran Streets, had breached their duty to protect Edward Scarborough from the dangers which awaited him on the property owned by the railroad. The law is clear, however, that police owe no duty to provide protection to any particular member of the public absent the existence of a "special relationship” between that individual and the police. See: *80Melendez v. City of Philadelphia, 320 Pa.Super. 59, 466 A.2d 1060 (1983); Chapman v. City of Philadelphia, 290 Pa.Super. 281, 434 A.2d 753 (1981). See also: 57 Am.Jur.2d § 251. Such a relationship will be found to exist only where the police are aware of the precise danger facing that individual and they undertake to protect him or her from that specific harm. Melendez v. City of Philadelphia, supra, 320 Pa.Superior Ct. at 65, 466 A.2d at 1063-1064. In the instant case, there was no evidence that a special relationship had existed between the minor plaintiff and the Police Department of the City of Philadelphia.
The plaintiffs argued that such a duty had been created by Police Directive 38. This argument lacks merit. A municipal corporation is not liable in damages for the negligent execution and enforcement of its ordinances by its police officers. Wecksler v. City of Philadelphia, 178 Pa.Super. 496, 501, 115 A.2d 898, 900 (1955). See: 57 Am.Jur.2d Municipal, School, and State Tort Liability, §§ 113, 114; 63 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations, § 769. Likewise, it will not be subject to liability for negligent enforcement of police regulations. See: Id. § 775 (The police regulations of a city are not made and enforced in the interest of the city in its corporate capacity, but in the interest of the public. A city is not liable, therefore, for the acts of its officers in attempting to enforce such regulations).

. Because of this conclusion, I find it unnecessary to decide the issues raised in the City’s motion for new trial.