Court Opinion

ID: 9634992
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:31:50.894271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:49:39.460174
License: Public Domain

*250
Levine, J.,

dissenting:

I respectfully dissent.
Claiming that the question was not properly preserved for appellate review under Maryland Rules 554 e and 885, the majority refuses to decide the primary issue for which certiorari was granted: whether Maryland should abandon the common law distinctions between invitees, licensees and trespassers for purposes of the law of premises liability. It is asserted that this Court is precluded from considering the question because of appellant’s failure to request a jury instruction specifically predicating the tort liability of an owner or occupier of land upon principles of ordinary negligence, rather than upon the technical status of a plaintiff-entrant.
“In none of Sherman’s numerous requests for jury instructions did he seek application of a general negligence standard or place reliance upon the principles of Rowland and its progeny.” 282 Md. at 249.
I disagree. In my view, the record clearly indicates that appellant did pray for a general negligence instruction, which not only ignored the common law status classifications, but implicitly assumed their abandonment.
Presumably the majority recognizes that by praying for a general negligence instruction, appellant would have succeeded in preserving the issue for our consideration. Yet this is precisely what appellant did when he prof erred his Jury Instruction Number 8, which in its entirety read as follows:
“The jury is instructed that the owner or occupier of the premises such as the Suburban Trust Company is in this case, is obliged by law to affirmatively exercise ordinary care to keep the premises in the condition reasonably safe for individuals such as Officer Sherman and to refrain from negligence. The responsibility with respect to the condition of the premises is not absolute. The owner is not an insurer. If there is a danger upon the *251entry or upon the premises which the officer is invited to enter and if such danger arises from conditions not reasonably apparent to the senses and if the owner or occupier has actual knowledge of them or if they are discoverable in the exercise of ordinary care, it then becomes his duty and that of his agents to give reasonable warning of such danger to individuals such as Officer Sherman. On the other hand, the owner or occupier is not bound to discover defects which an [sic] reasonable inspection were not disclosed and he is entitled to assume that the officer will reasonably perseve [sic] those dangers which would be apparent to him upon reasonable and ordinary use of his own senses. On the other hand, the Officer has the right to assume that the premises he is inivited [sic] to enter are reasonably safe for the purposes for which he has entered.” (emphasis added).
Save possibly for the use of the word “invited” in its apparently colloquial sense, the proposed instruction makes absolutely no reference to the common law categories. Had appellant sought to bring himself within the invitee classification, he undoubtedly would have employed explicit language to that effect. See, e.g., Maryland State Bar Association Pattern Jury Instructions — Civil 246 (1977). Rather, the requested instruction states in unmistakable terms that appellee was under a duty to “exercise ordinary care” in maintaining its premises and “to refrain from negligence.” The conclusion is inescapable that this instruction sets forth a theory of liability based strictly on ordinary negligence concepts without regard to the technical status of the plaintiff.
What is more, the majority opinion itself appears to concede that appellant preserved the point, stating that “Sherman ... sought an instruction that the bank had an affirmative duty to exercise ordinary care to keep the premises reasonably safe for him and to refrain from negligence. ” 282 Md. at 241 (emphasis added).
Although no case authority was cited in support of the *252prayer, appellant’s Instruction Number 8 is an accurate description of what a landowner’s duty of care would be under a system of premises liability in which the ancient status categories have been abandoned. See, e.g., Ouellette v. Blanchard, 116 N. H. 552, 364 A. 2d 631, 634 (1976). By requesting such an instruction, and by entering a timely exception to the trial court’s final charge to the jury, appellant fully complied with the provisions of Maryland Rule 554 e, thereby properly preserving for our review the issue of whether the common law rules of premises liability should finally be abolished in Maryland.1
Retention of the archaic doctrine predicating the duty of a landowner solely upon the status of the injured party as a trespasser, licensee or invitee can no longer be justified in terms of either logic or social policy. Although it was once thought that the common law approach was necessary to protect a landowner’s right to the free use and enjoyment of his property, Neal v. Home Builders, 232 Ind. 160, 111 N.E.2d 280, 292 (1953); Smith, Liability of Landowners to Children Entering Without Permission, 11 Harv. L. Rev. 349, 362 (1898), the emerging and more enlightened view, in my opinion, is that society’s interest in the safety of its members outweighs its interest in the occupier’s unrestricted use of his premises. Hughes, Duties to Trespassers: A Comparative Survey and Revaluation, 68 Yale L. J. 633, 689-90 (1959); see Rowland v. Christian, 69 Cal. 2d 108, 70 Cal. Rptr. 97, 443 P. 2d 561, 568, 32 A.L.R.2d 496 (1968); Mounsey v. Ellard, 363 Mass. 693, 297 N.E.2d 43, 51 (1973); O’Leary v. Coenen, 251 N.W.2d 746, 752 (N.D. 1977).
Strict application of the common law rules has frequently resulted in the inordinately severe treatment of plaintiff entrants. See, e.g., Osterman v. Peters, 260 Md. 313, 272 A. 2d 21 (1971) (upholding directed verdict in favor of defendant whose negligence in leaving swimming pool unattended led *253to death of 4% year old infant trespasser). The inequities of the traditional system are especially apparent in those cases where courts, focusing exclusively on status, rule against the injured party as a matter of law thereby depriving the plaintiff of a jury determination as to the reasonableness of the landowner’s conduct in light of prevailing standards within the particular community. Smith v. Arbaugh’s Restaurant, Inc., 469 F. 2d 97, 103-104 (D.C. Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 412 U. S. 939 (1973); Mile High Fence Company v. Radovich, 175 Colo. 537, 489 P. 2d 308, 312 (1971); Note, 44 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 426, 430 (1969).
A growing dissatisfaction with the harsh and clumsy nature of the common law rules has prompted courts to engraft upon the doctrine a multitude of exceptions and modifications. Ironically, these efforts have by and large added to the complexity, confusion and inequity of the system, giving rise to what one court has termed, a “semantical quagmire.” 2 Mariorenzi v. Joseph DiPonte, Inc., 114 R. I. 294, 333 A. 2d 127, 133 (1975). See also Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale, 358 U. S. 625, 631, 79 S. Ct. 406, 3 L.Ed.2d 550 (1959); Peterson v. Balach, 294 Minn. 161, 199 N.W.2d 639, 644 (1972); Scurti v. City of New York, 40 N.Y.2d 433, 387 N.Y.S.2d 55, 354 N.E.2d 794, 797-98 (1976).
Finally, continued adherence to the ancient licensee-invitee-trespasser distinction is inconsistent with contemporary thinking about the function of tort law in our society. Resort to rules of status, as opposed to principles of negligence and fault, conflicts with the goal of distributing risks of personal injury over large segments of the population *254and prevents efficient allocation of social resources. Smith v. Arbaugh’s Restaurant, Inc., 469 F. 2d at 101; see Ursin, Strict Liability for Defective Business Premises — One Step Beyond Rowland and Greenman, 22 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 820 (1975). As Professors Harper and James wrote over twenty years ago: “[T]he traditional rule confers on an occupier of land a special privilege to be careless which is quite out of keeping with the development of accident law generally and is no more justifiable here than it would be in the case of any other useful enterprise or activity.” 2 F. Harper & F. James, The Law of Torts § 27.3, at 1440 (1956).
For these reasons, I think it is time to abandon once and for all the common law status-oriented approach to premises liability and to adopt in its stead a standard grounded on well-settled principles, of ordinary negligence. Thus a landowner, in using and maintaining his property, would be obligated to conduct himself in a reasonable and prudent manner so as not to create an unreasonable risk of harm to persons entering on the premises. The standard of care to be applied under such a rule would depend upon several factors, including the likelihood that the conduct in question will result in injury to others, the gravity of such harm, and the cost of preventing or mitigating the risk of injury. Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale, 358 U. S. at 632; Webb v. City and Borough of Sitka, 561 P. 2d 731, 733 (Alaska 1977); Rowland v. Christian, 443 P. 2d at 568; Mile High Fence Company v. Radovich, 489 P. 2d at 314; Pickard v. City and County of Honolulu, 51 Haw. 134, 452 P. 2d 445, 446 (1969); Cates v. Beauregard Electric Cooperative, Inc., 328 So. 2d 367, 371 (La.), cert. denied, 429 U. S. 833 (1976); Ouellette v. Blanchard, 364 A. 2d at 634; Basso v. Miller, 40 N.Y.2d 233, 386 N.Y.S.2d 564, 352 N.E.2d 868, 872 (1976); Mariorenzi v. Joseph DiPonte, Inc., 333 A. 2d at 133.
I would reverse the judgment of the circuit court and remand the case for a new trial. Judge Eldridge authorizes me to state that he joins this opinion.

. After the jury had been instructed, appellant specifically noted his exception to the refusal of the court to grant Instruction Number 8. More importantly, the court acknowledged that appellant had met the requirements of Maryland Rule 554 e by making his prayers a part of the record, and indicated that it would therefore be unnecessary for counsel to do anything further to preserve the point.

. Maryland case law is replete with examples of confusion engendered by use of the common law system of status classifications. A good illustration is Aravanis v. Eisenberg, 237 Md. 242, 206 A. 2d 148 (1965), noted in 25 Md. L. Rev. 348 (1965), upon which the majority relies so heavily in disposing of the case at hand. There the protection accorded firemen injured in the course of performing their duties was made to turn on the vague notion of whether the “occupational risk” of firefighting had been dissipated by a mere passage of time and a slight change in geography. Equally perplexing is the treatment of so-called social guests. See Telak v. Maszczenski, 248 Md. 476, 237 A. 2d 434 (1968); Stevens v. Dovre, 248 Md. 15, 234 A. 2d 596 (1967); Paquin v. McGinnis, 246 Md. 569, 229 A. 2d 86 (1967). For a discussion of the idiosyncrasies of Maryland law in this area, see Note, 36 Md. L. Rev. 816, 822-34 (1977).