Court Opinion

ID: 9534542
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:40:46.047456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:31:20.469187
License: Public Domain

CARMODY, Chief Justice, and NOBLE,. Justice (dissenting). Our decisions in De Baca v. Kahn, 49 N.M. 225, 161 P.2d 630; Kitts v. Shop Rite Foods, 64 N.M. 24, 323 P.2d 282; Barrans v. Hogan, 62 N.M. 79, 304 P.2d 880, 61 A.L.R.2d 1 and Seal v. Safeway Stores, 48 N. M. 200, 147 P.2d 359, require a plaintiff, to entitle him to recover, to show “some specific act of negligence on the part of the defendant, or the existence of conditions so, obviously dangerous as to amount to evidence from which an inference of negligence would arise.” ' '■ ''' The fact that some 87 persons had played golf over this same fairway within the days immediately preceding this accident, without anyone having slipped or fallen, or so far as the evidence discloses, seen ice on the slopes, negatives any reasonable inference of a condition so obviously dangerous as to amount to evidence of negligence on the part of the owner or operator of the golf course. Furthermore, the evidence that- the ice was covered by grass and not observable until one actually stepped upon.it clearly denies the existence of a condition obviously dangerous. It is, apparent from the facts of this case that the proprietor of the golf course could only ha,ve been made aware of this particular icy place by a minute foot-by-foot inspection. This he is not required to do. He is only required to make a reasonable inspection of the premises and owes to patrons only- ordinary or reasonable care. Annotation, 22 A.L.R. 610. See, particularly, Patterson v. City of Lexington, 229 N.C. 637, 50 S.E.2d 900, 901, where it was said that the owners of a ball park are not insurers of the safety of its patrons and are held only to the obligation of exercising ordinary care to prevent injury which could have been reasonably foreseen. Since the icy spot in this ' case was so covered with grass that when walking up and down that particular fair-i way one would not see it from a short distance away, this case falls within the fiile of the cases cited supra. • '■ ' Notwithstanding the contrary view expressed by the majority, we think the effect of the majority opinion is actually,to,make the golf course owner or operator an insurer of the safety of its patrons., For these reasons, we are compelled to dissent from the majority opinion.