Court Opinion

ID: 9663677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:47:21.169487+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:54.786833
License: Public Domain

J. H. Gtllis, J.
(concurring). I concur in the results arrived at in the majority opinion because I am convinced that there is a factual issue in the instant case which should be presented to a jury. The trial court in granting the motion for summary judgment relied on Chaddock v. Plummer (1891), 88 Mich 225 (14 LRA 675, 26 Am St Rep 283). In the court’s opinion in response to the argument of the plaintiffs’ counsel, it was stated that:
“The air gun has not changed in any manner from that in 1891. If it wasn’t a dangerous instrument then, it is not any more so now. There are probably more air guns and more children, but the gun remains the same as it was then.”
In the Chaddock Case, the Court described the air gun as follows (p 228) :
“The gun was the common make of toy air gun for children, breaking in the middle for the insertion *89of the shot, and, when closed again, operating with a spring, compressing the air and expelling the shot.”
In the instant case we do not have an accurate description of the type of weapon involved. The pleadings refer to a “BB hand gun.”
“Now, the number of mates and types of hand-operated air arms runs high in the thousands. They include toy patterns, low-powered types for short-range target shooting and indoor use, types powerful enough for use against small birds, rodents, and vermin, ultra-precision types rivalling the accuracy of the best cartridge weapons at short distances, and finally, types powerful enough for deer and boar hunting.” W. H. B. Smith (1957), Gas, Air, & Spring Guns of the World, p 17.
_ “The term ‘air-guns’ is loosely used (as in the title of this booh) to mean any and every long arm in which the bullets or missiles are projected by compressed air. Properly applied, however, the term air-gun means a gun tvith a smooth, non-riflecl barrel in which the propellant is compressed air.” L. Wesley (1955), Air-Guns and Air-Pistols, p 2.
A jury, should have the opportunity to ascertain the particular type of air guns utilized by the defendant’s son. We cannot assume that these guns were the same as those described by the court in the Chaddoch Case some 75 years ago. Density of population of the area where the guns were utilized would be another factor to be considered by a jury.
Reversed and remanded for trial. Costs to appellants.