Court Opinion

ID: 9740465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:36:06.227586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:18.382659
License: Public Domain

KELLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
As the majority points out, we have held it improper for courts to set age limits for the applicability of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 339 (1965). Johnson v. Clement F. Scully Construction Co., 255 Minn. 41, 95 N.W.2d 409 (1959); see Ekdahl v. Minnesota Utilities Co., 203 Minn. 374, 281 N.W. 517 (1938). But, in my opinion, that is exactly what happened in this case. The trial judge ruled that because David Hughes was a minor under Minnesota law, section 339 applied. Thus, the jury was not permitted to consider whether, because of his youth, his maturity or lack thereof and other factors, 16-year-old David Hughes met the requirement of section 339(c). If the jury, under appropriate instructions, found that respondent, because of his age and experience, was too young to appreciate the risk, and if the jury further found the remaining four requirements of the section 339 rule had been established, it could have resolved the issues submitted by the application of that rule.
As I read the record, there was a question of fact whether David Hughes, in light of his experience and age, should be expected to appreciate the danger. If the jury, under facts here present, concluded that respondent, because of his age and experience, did or should have realized the risk involved, the jury should have assessed appellant’s liability under the rules applicable to a trespassing adult set forth in Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 333 and 335 (1965) adopted by this court in Hanson v. *428Bailey, 249 Minn. 495, 500, 83 N.W.2d 252, 257-8 (1957).
The majority opines that had an instruction been given incorporating the elements of sections 333 and 335, it would have allowed the jury to elect which rule of law to apply to the case. I disagree. If the jury resolves the factual question of required youth in favor of David Hughes, section 339 applies; if it resolves the question the other way, sections 333 and 335 apply. I submit this is not unusual in the trial of lawsuits. It is done daily in the trial courts of this state in contract, tort and even criminal actions. In many actions, the jury is instructed that if it resolves a fact issue one way, a certain rule of law applies, but if it resolves the issue another way, a different rule of law applies. In such cases the jury is not opting the rule of law to apply, but rather is finding the fact and applying the law that is applicable to the fact so found.
In the instant case, the judge first instructed the jury that David Hughes was a minor. Then he instructed the jury that the landowner’s duty to “minor children” was as set forth in section 339, the crucial part of which was that “the children because of their youth do not discover the condition or realize the risk involved.” Obviously, David Hughes “did not discover or realize” the risk, if any there was, or he would not have dived as he did. This instruction placed no duty on him to ascertain the condition under water by the use of reasonable care before he dived into it.
Later in the instructions the court did instruct the jury that it was the duty of a child to use that care which a reasonable child of the same age, intelligence, training and experience as David Hughes would have used under like circumstances, but I submit that had to do with appellant’s claim that David Hughes was contributorily negligent, not with the establishment of appellant’s negligence.
Finally, I conclude that the trial court erred in not submitting Minn.Stat. § 87.01 (1982) for consideration by the jury. The record contains considerable evidence, much of it produced by respondent, that appellant’s employees condoned and permitted young people to swim in the quarry. That statute would be inapplicable only if the jury found that Restatement section 339 protected respondent.
Accordingly, I would remand for a new trial on the issue of liability — the defendant’s and the plaintiff’s negligence — and the apportionment of fault. The jury having determined the damages sustained by respondent and there being no substantial challenge by appellant to the amount of such damages, that issue need not be retried.