Court Opinion

ID: 9560205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:45:19.623647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:25.632616
License: Public Domain

Scholfield, C.J.
(dissenting)—I respectfully dissent because I believe the majority has confused negligence with wantonness in this case.
As the court observed in Adkisson v. Seattle, 42 Wn.2d 676, 682-83, 258 P.2d 461 (1953):
A person properly chargeable with wanton misconduct is not simply one who is more careless than one who is merely negligent. Wanton misconduct is such as puts the actor in the class with the wilful doer of wrong.
Wantonness implies indifference as to whether an act will injure another, involves intent rather than inadvertence and is positive rather than negative; it is the intentional doing of an act, or the intentional failure to do an act, in reckless disregard of the consequences and with a reason to know that such conduct will, in a high degree of probability, result in substantial harm to another. Adkisson, at 687; 57 Am. Jur. 2d Negligence §§ 101-103 (1971). Thus, negligence and wantonness are mutually exclusive or incompatible terms that imply radically different mental states. 3 S. Speiser, C. Krause & A. Gans, Torts § 10:1 (1986).
In finding that the Schafers were innocent of "willful" misconduct, the majority concluded, "there is no indication that they strung the cable with knowledge that motorcyclists regularly used the road and that they intended to catch someone." Majority opinion, at 411. By the same token, there is no indication that the Schafers strung the cable knowing that the road was used by motorcyclists, but indifferent to the likelihood that someone would be injured. In fact, the Schafers took positive steps, even though arguably inadequate, to discourage trespassing and to mark the cable.
In Mendenhall v. Siegel, 1 Wn. App. 263, 462 P.2d 245, *41340 A.L.R.3d 788 (1969), a tenant was awarded damages for injuries received when he tripped on a worn rug in the hallway of his apartment building. On appeal, the court reversed, holding it was error to instruct the jury on the plaintiff's theory that the apartment owner was guilty of wanton misconduct, since the fact that the manager periodically trimmed away the loose strings on the rug refuted the notion of a reckless disregard for the safety of others. Mendenhall, at 268. Likewise, in my view, the fact that the Schafers posted their road and hung ribbons on the cable negates any finding of a reckless disregard on their part for Russell's safety.
It has been said " [tjhere is nothing in law so elusive as defining and applying degrees of fault." Mendenhall, at 267. Nevertheless, where a landowner is shown to have taken affirmative steps to warn of a hazard on his property, while he may have been negligent if the warnings were inadequate, I would hold that, as a matter of law, he could not be found to have "wantonly" injured a trespasser.
Therefore, I would affirm the trial court's dismissal of the appellant's claim.
Review granted by Supreme Court July 1, 1987.