Court Opinion

ID: 9789567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:38:32.910264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:23.230420
License: Public Domain

*458Owsley, J.,
concurring: Although I agree with the majority opinion that the issue of attractive nuisance should have been submitted to the jury under the facts of this case, I believe it advisable to more clearly define my position. The dissent inquires as to what the majority would have required the Loneys to have done under the circumstances shown here. I would reply that the fact trash barrel incinerators may be found in thousands of yards in the State of Kansas does not eliminate the responsibility of the owners of these incinerators to protect children attracted by them from injury. It occurs to me that the Loneys could have protected the injured child by seeing that the fire was out and could have removed the papers surrounding the incinerator to prevent them from being used by the child in the manner in which he had observed them being used. Each of these acts would only have created a small inconvenience on the part of the Loneys and either of the acts would likely have prevented the burning of the five-year-old boy. For these reasons I believe the majority opinion was correct in finding the question of attractive nuisance should remain with the jury.
Having so found it appears to me the issue of whether the child was an invitee, a licensee or a trespasser is not an issue in this litigation. Apparently the majority opinion and the dissent see fit to make it an issue. It is my thought that the challenge to the premises law in Kansas as it now stands should be left to a case where the decision has a bearing on the outcome of the litigation. Notwithstanding this position I express my dissatisfaction with the law. I am firmly convinced that the distinction between invitees and licensees should be eliminated. This court, in a proper case, should consider a change in the premises law in this state in a manner that would improve the administration of justice in litigation of this kind.