Court Opinion

ID: 9450772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:57:21.689361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:26.731742
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The majority says that the vital issue in this case is whether defendant’s use, without authority, of a public area for storage purposes carried with it a duty of maintaining the area reasonably safe for children passers-by so as not to create a likelihood of injury to them. In my opinion the crucial issue is whether there was a causal relation between defendant’s conduct, assuming under certain circumstances it might have been negligent, and plaintiff’s injury that was so direct and foreseeable as to subject defendant to liability.
The presence of the pipes is not relevant. The pipe through which the glass was thrown was nothing more than a conduit for the missile. It played no material part in the happening. If the glass had been thrown above the pipe, the accident might have occurred nonetheless. Moreover, the presence of the glass in the area, dedicated but not used for public purposes, was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury. The injury was brought about by an eleven-year old playmate who picked up a piece of glass and propelled it toward plaintiff. That this independent and willful activity, rather than the presence of the glass or pipe, was the proximate cause of the occurrence is demonstrated by the supposition that plaintiff’s eye might have been injured by the playmate if the latter had picked up and thrown a stone instead of a piece of glass. In those circumstances, could we say that because the occurrence happened in an area which was controlled by or in possession of defendant liability followed ? The presence of the broken glass and the pipes was an adventitious circumstance which had no proximate cause and effect relation with plaintiff’s injury. The case should be decided upon this basis rather than upon a determination of what duty defendant owed plaintiff. Unless there was a proximate causal link between defendant’s conduct and the occurrence, questions of duty and negligence do not become relevant.
Upon this rationale, I would affirm the dismissal of the complaint.