Court Opinion

ID: 9794502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:07:06.925507+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:16:56.106087
License: Public Domain

CARMODY, Chief Justice, and NOBLE, Justice (dissenting). We must dissent from the majority opinion, principally becáuse under these circumstances the excavation embodied no danger that was not readily apparent to everyone, even young children, and the owner of the premises is under no obligation, as a rule, to fence or otherwise guard such places and will not be liable to children who may have- fallen thereon. Prosser, 47 Cal.L.Rev. 429, Restatement on Torts, § 339, Comment (b). The effect of the majority opinion is to practically make a landowner an insurer of the safety of children. The facts of this case present strong reasons for not extending the attractive nuisance doctrine to cover cases of patent and visible alluring dangers other than those arising from mechanical appliances. See Mellas v. Lowdermilk, 58 N.M. 363, 271 P.2d 399. We think it unnecessary to repeat what was said in our respective dissents to Martinez v. C. R. Davis Const. Co., 73 N.M. 474, 389 P.2d 597. For these reasons and those expressed in the dissents to Martinez, we are compelled to dissent from the majority opinion.