Court Opinion

ID: 9795828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:39:35.59417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:38:04.777435
License: Public Domain

THORNE, Judge
(dissenting).
126 I respectfully dissent and disagree with the majority's assertion that the Utah Supreme Court overruled, sub silento, Donahue v. Durfee, 780 P.2d 1275 (Utah Ct.App.1989). See House v. Armour of America, Inc., 929 P.2d 340 (Utah 1996), aff'g 886 P.2d 542 (Utah Ct.App.1994); Golding v. Ashley Cent. Irrigation Co., 902 P.2d 142, 145-48 (Utah 1995); Pratt v. Mitchell Hollow Irrigation Co., 813 P.2d 1169, 1172-73 (Utah 1991). After reading the cases cited by the majority, I believe that the Utah Supreme Court's position is, at best, ambiguous concerning our holding in Donahue.1 Because it is unclear that the cases relied upon by the majority do in fact "revive" the open and obvious danger rule in landowner lability cases, I conclude that this court is bound by the reasoning in Donakue.2
Under the doctrine of stare decisis, once a point of law is decided, that ruling should be followed by a court of the same or a lower rank in subsequent cases confronting the same legal issue. Once the court of last resort makes a legal ruling, decisions on the same issue by courts of a lower rank are superseded.
State v. Shoulderblade, 905 P.2d 289, 292 (Utah 1995) (citations and quotations omitted). "Although the doctrine is typically thought of when a single-panel appellate court is faced with a prior decision from the same court, stare decisis has equal application when one panel of a multi-panel appellate court is faced with a prior decision of a different panel." State v. Thurman, 846 P.2d 1256, 1269 (Utah 1993).
127 Until the Utah Supreme Court overrules Donahue or establishes a precedent at odds with Donahue, we are bound to follow our pronouncement in Donahue that the open and obvious dangers rule is incompatible with a comparative negligence system. *635Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court decision and remand for proceedings consistent with Donahue.

. For example, House v. Armour of America, Inc., 929 P.2d 340 (Utah 1996), aff'g 886 P.2d 542 (Utah Ct.App.1994), deals specifically with the notion of product liability. See id. at 342-43. Golding v. Ashley Central Irrigation Co., 902 P.2d 142 (Utah 1995), addresses lability under the Landowner Liability Act and Pratt v. Mitchell Hollow Irrigation Co., 813 P.2d 1169 (Utah 1991), addresses liability to trespassers and the attractive nuisance doctrine. See also Golding, 902 P.2d at 148; Pratt, 813 P.2d at 1173. I believe these arenas of the law are sufficiently different from the facts at issue here that it is unwise to conclude that the standards articulated therein necessarily apply to this factual situation.

. In House, 886 P.2d at 548, we reaffirmed our pronouncement in Donahue v. Durfee, 780 P.2d 1275 (Utah Ct.App.1989), that the open and obvious danger rule is inconsistent with a comparative negligence system. Laws v. Blanding City, 893 P.2d 1083, 1085 (Utah Ct.App.1995), the case extensively relied upon by the majority, also cites Donahue favorably, but then, inexplicably, appears to depart from its principles. Id. at 1286. Thus, between Donahue in 1989 and House in 1994, we held firm to the idea that the open and obvious danger rule is inconsistent with a comparative negligence system.