Court Opinion

ID: 9448638
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:41:57.170642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:30.963634
License: Public Domain

GANEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The nub of the question here posed is whether under the Restatement, Torts, § 339(c), the plaintiff, “realized the risk involved” when he sustained injuries as a result of his wrapping his legs around the spolce of a large wheel which was intermeshed with a smaller one and- on which he undertook to ride the large wheel, going completely around in cartwheel fashion, which wheel was slippery and greased.
It is the law of Pennsylvania that liability may only be imposed in cases of this type where all the requirements, (a), (b), (c) and (d) of § 339 were present. Dugan v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 387 Pa. 25-32, 127 A.2d 343; Jennings v. Glen Alden Coal Co., 369 Pa. 532, 536, 87 A.2d 206; Verrichia v. Society Di M. S. Del Lazio, 366 Pa. 629, 631, 79 A.2d 237. Accordingly, in order to impose liability, it is requisite that the plaintiff meet the requirements of subsection (c) of § 339 of the Restatement, Torts, which provides as follows:
“A possessor of land is subject to liability for bodily harm to young children trespassing thereon caused by a structure or other artificial condition which he maintained upon the land, if
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“(c) the children because of their youth do not discover the condition or realize the risk involved in in-termeddling in it or coming within the area made dangerous by it, and # # # ”
It is submitted that the record here clearly shows that this child of ten years of age had a full and complete realization of the risk involved in the conduct he engaged in with his playmate in turning himself around on this wheel by clinging to the large spokes which were part of it. It is equally clear, as shown by numerous cases in Pennsylvania, that “the measure of a child’s responsibility is his capacity to see and appreciate danger, and the rule is that, in the absence of clear evidence of the lack of it, he will be held to such measure of discretion as is usual in those of his age and experience. This measure varies, of course, with each additional year.” Rice v. Kring, 310 Pa. 550, 556, 165 A. 833, 835. In Parker v. Washington Electric Street Railway Co., 207 Pa. 438, 441, 56 A. 1001, the court speaks as follows: “It follows that as responsibility depends upon the knowledge and experience of the child and on the character of the danger to which he *936is exposed, generally the question is one for the jury, and not for the court. This must always be so when the facts are in dispute or the inferences to be drawn from them are doubtful. But in clear cases, where the facts are settled, and there can be no reasonable doubt as to the inferences to be drawn, the question may be determined by the court as matter of law.” Gress v. Phila. & Reading Ry. Co., 228 Pa. 482, 486, 77 A. 810, 32 L.R.A., N.S., 409.
I am in agreement with the majority that the so-called “falling out” cases in Pennsylvania, Malloy v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 387 Pa. 408, 128 A.2d 40; McHugh v. Reading Co., 346 Pa. 266, 30 A. 2d 122, 145 A.L.R. 319, are, in the instant case, not applicable. However, I think it clear from the record that this admittedly bright boy of ten years of age was fully aware of the danger inherent in the situation which he created on his own admissions. The majority quotes certain portions of the record where the plaintiff admitted that if he put his finger between the gears he would get hurt, but also added “we were not planning to stick our hands in the machine.” It seems obvious that this, in no wise, mitigates the fact of contributory negligence for, if a child of ten years would deliberately plan to stick his hand in the meshed gears of the machine, his competence would be that of a low moron. However, the record discloses, in another instance, the minor plaintiff clearly stated that if his hand got caught in the gears, he would get hurt.
A more complete reading of the record shows, to my mind, conclusively, that this boy had complete realization of the risk here involved.
When asked concerning his conduct, he answered as follows:
“Q. Then what did you do? A. We started walking down towards the machines. Then we decided to play with the machines since we found out that the one machine moved, the gears moved pretty freely.
“Q. So that before you got tangled up with that machine, you knew that those gears moved pretty freely, didn’t you? A. Yes, we was trying them.
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“Q. Fou knew on these big gears that moved pretty freely that if you got your hand in those gears you’d get hurt. Did you know that? A. Yes, sir.
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“Q. * * * Now, Harry, you also knew when you were ten years old, before this accident happened, you knew that grease was slippery, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you knew there was grease on this machine? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And especially on the gears. Isn’t that right? A. Yes.
“Q. Of course, you spoke about rust in the machine. The rust wouldn’t be where the grease was, would it? A. No.
“Q. In fact, the grease would help keep it from getting rusty. Isn’t that right? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. I didn’t quite understand or I don’t quite remember what you said about where you had your hands when you were on this gear. Tell me that again. A. Like on a bicycle, you have the spokes.
“Q. Yes. A. Well, they’re big thick spokes on the gear. I had it wrapped around, like this.
“Q. Wrapped around the spokes? A. Yes. On the big wheel.
“Q. Well now, somehow or other, Harry, your hand got from being wrapped around the spokes — your right hand got from there into the gears themselves, didn’t it, the cogs of the gear? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Can you tell us how that happened? A. I can’t remember. It happened so fast.
*937"Q. You said something about slipping on grease. Now, what did you mean by that? A. I lost my footing, because — I had my foot on another spoke, and I slipped on it. My footing slipped. And it put more weight on my hand and my hand just slipped from the grease.
“Q. In other words, what happened, Harry, is that you were standing on the spokes of this wheel on this machine, a gear wheel on the machine. You were standing on the spokes and you fell off, and your hand got hurt somehow while you were falling. Is that about it? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Now, was this wheel you were standing on moving or still while you were standing on it? A. Alan was moving it. He turned the —it was a different wheel. He turned it, and it turned this big one.
We thought we’d get a ride on it.”
This testimony is clear and unequivocal that, though minor plaintiff was only ten years of age, he realized that the spokes of the wheel were greasy around which he had to wrap his legs and feet and, that in the process, the big gears moved very freely because they tried them and, finally, that if his hands got caught in them he would get hurt. This is exactly what happened in the turning of the small wheel which turned the larger wheel in the spokes about which he was wrapped around, to secure a sort of cartwheel ride, he slipped, fell from the wheel and his hand became enmeshed in the same.
There can be no question but that the case cited in the majority opinion, Hyndman v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 396 Pa. 190, 152 A.2d 251, there was a question for the jury where the plaintiff, a young boy of eleven years of age, a tenderfoot with a Boy Scout troop, was encamped approximately fifty feet from a steel pole which had a metal ladder leading to a steel platform where the transformer apparatus was located and which was affixed to the platform. From this apparatus, two parallel vertical wires, with light insulation, led from above the platform down to the top of the transformer. The young boy, thinking that one of these wires was a pipe, placed his hand on it and the electrical contact threw him to the ground where he was severely injured. In Thompson v. Reading R. R. Co., 343 Pa. 585, 23 A.2d 729, there was a turntable upon which the plaintiff threw himself to get a ride, which was being turned around by a group of boys and he became wedged between the turntable and a concrete wall. In these and the remaining cases which the majority cites, there were factual inferences which could be drawn by a jury or there were disputed questions of fact which made it encumbent for a jury to decide, rather than a question of law for the court.
I am not unmindful of the many Pennsylvania cases, too numerous for repetition, concerning the heavy burden the possessor of land has in overcoming the plaintiff’s right to a jury passing on the determination of his alleged contributory negligence in the light of his youth and surrounding circumstances. However, since § 239 of the Restatement, Torts, is imbedded in the law of Pennsylvania, Thompson v. Reading R. R. Co., supra, Altenbach v. Lehigh Valley R. R., 349 Pa. 272, 37 A.2d 429, I am clearly persuaded that the plaintiff here appraised the risk involved and fully realized it by the plain, unequivocal and voluntary admission made by him in connection therewith.
Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment of the lower court.