Court Opinion

ID: 9739603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:18:22.001066+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:13.129734
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE NASH, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the extension of the tort theory of negligent entrustment to the facts alleged in count I of this complaint. I have no quarrel with the proposition that one who knowingly permits a five-year-old child to use a dangerous instrumentality may be liable for foreseeable injuries to a third party. I am not persuaded, however, that this court should, for the first time in Illinois, recognize a cause of action against the owner of a potentially dangerous object present in his home who simply was unable or failed to prevent a visiting five-year-old child from reaching it. As noted by the majority, courts in Illinois have recognized a cause of action where a defendant has placed a dangerous instrument in the hands of a minor. (Semeniuk v. Chentis (1954), 1 Ill. App. 2d 508, 117 N.E.2d 883; Palm v. Ivorson (1905), 117 Ill. App. 535.) There are, however, few cases from any jurisdiction, and none from this State, in which liability is premised merely upon leaving a potentially dangerous object where it could be accessible to the child. See Annot., 12 A.L.R. 812 (1921). The issue presented has been most fully discussed in Kuhns v. Brugger (1957), 390 Pa. 331, 135 A.2d 395, which is relied upon by the majority here. I find the thoughtful dissent by Justice Bell in that case to express the best view of the question and would follow it. In Kuhns, the court placed a duty of exercising not simply ordinary, but extraordinary care, upon a possessor of a firearm to prevent harm to others. It did not address whether other objects such as knives, medicines or poisonous substances would also require the same degree of care. In dissent, Justice Bell noted there are always present in any home many dangerous items with which a child may be injured or injure others, and that the standard of care thus imposed upon homeowners was too far-reaching. Absent factual allegations demonstrating that defendant made the pellet pistol available to his grandson, plaintiff has failed to adequately plead the theory of negligent entrustment. The general allegation that defendant’s pistol was in a place in his home accessible to the child’s reach is insufficient.