Court Opinion

ID: 9764318
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:18:57.297903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:55.801274
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. The majority concludes the appellant was a trespasser as a matter of law because he parked his car on the property of Gray Supply Company, Inc., without permission. But that does not give due regard to the fact that United Fence sent word to appellant to come and move his car, and while that would not elevate appellant to the status of an invitee, it does, I believe, create an issue of fact as to whether appellant was a licensee and, hence, entitled to a somewhat different standard of care than is owed to an undiscovered trespasser. Prosser, Law of Torts, Fourth Ed., § 60, p. 376. In Webb v. Pearson, 244 Ark. 109, 424 S.W.2d 145 (1968), we said there was no difference between the duty owing to a licensee and a trespasser and a directed verdict was properly granted against a licensee who slipped on a grease spot on Pearson’s walkway. That was the correct result in that case, because an owner or occupier of land owes no duty to a licensee (as he does to an invitee) to inspect the premises to be certain they are safe, and there was no proof that Pearson knew, or should have known, a dangerous condition existed. See Prosser, Id. § 60 at p. 380. But here we have a different situation. United Fenhe dug holes near the vehicle large enough for a man to step in and left them with no warning signs or markings, at the same time notifying appellant to come onto the property to move his car. The language approved in Garrett v. Arkansas Power & Light Co., 218 Ark. 575, 237 S.W.2d 62 (1951) is appropriate here: In all of our decisions on the subject — and there are many — we have adhered to the rule that one who goes upon the premises of another as a mere licensee is in the same áttitude as a trespasser so far as concerns the duty which the owner owes him for his protection; that he takes the license with its concomitant perils, and that the owner owes him no duty of protection except to do no act to cause his injury after his presence there is discovered. (Emphasis supplied.) Appellant, whether a licensee or a discovered trespasser, was entitled to enter the property free of dangers created by United Fence Company which he might not be expected to anticipate. Giving that proof its highest probative value [Farm Bureau Mutual Ins. Co. v. Henley, 275 Ark. 122, 628 S.W.2d 301 (1982)] an issue for the jury arises as to appellant’s status, and whether United Fence breached a duty owed to him. I would reverse as to United Fence. [See De Vazier v. Whit Davis Lumber Company, 257 Ark. 371, 516 S.W.2d 610 (1974).] Purtle and Hollingsworth, JJ., join in this dissent.