Court Opinion

ID: 9737970
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:38:45.919394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:02.956373
License: Public Domain

CRAVEN, J., dissenting. I concur in the majority opinion insofar as it relates to the defendants Gordon K. Nelson and Marion Nelson. I cannot agree that the opinion of the Supreme Court in Driscoll is determinative of the issue of liability as to the defendant Rune. I would affirm the judgment entered upon the verdict of the jury against that defendant. There are many issues presented by this appeal but in view of the majority opinion exonerating Rune, as a matter of law, these issues need be mentioned only in passing. The trial court correctly determined complex issues as to instructions, evidence and the possible contributory negligence of the parents in this action by a minor by his father as next friend. In my opinion, a factual issue was presented for determination by the jury and the jury’s determination on the issue of liability was not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. The evidence establishes actual knowledge of the conditions and knowledge that the conditions involved risks to children known to play on the premises. The jury was well warranted in finding foreseeability of harm. See Lance v. Senior, 36 Ill2d 516, 224 NE2d 231 (1967). In Driscoll v. C. Rasmussen Corp., 35 Ill2d 74, 219 NE2d 483 (1966), we find a similar but distinguishable fact situation. In that case a trash pile near a construction site contained some paint or lacquer cans with paint or lacquer in some of them. The plaintiff in that case, a seven-year-old boy, playing on the pile, splashed some paint or lacquer on his clothing and was burned when it was ignited from a fire he and his friends had started in the vicinity. The Supreme Court held as a matter of law that the contractor was free from liability. In so holding the court observed that the paint or lacquer was not explosive nor inherently dangerous although combustible. The trash pile was not inherently dangerous and could not reasonably be said to have been the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury. In the instant case the barrel with gasoline in it could reasonably have been found to constitute a dangerous condition— at least a fact issue was presented. Svienty v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 8 Ill App2d 360, 132 NE2d 83 (1st Dist 1956). The defendant Rune knew that children did, in fact, play at the building site. Indeed, the defendant had on prior occasions removed the gasoline barrel from the building site perhaps because of a recognition of the danger. I recognize the necessity of drawing a line, on one side of which a defendant is exonerated from liability as a matter of law and on the other a question of fact is to be determined by the jury. In my judgment this case falls in the area of a factual determination. Again by reference to Lance, the likelihood of injury, the magnitude of the burden of guarding against it and the consequences of placing that burden upon the defendant must be considered. I would affirm the judgments of the trial court.