TORTS-NEGLIGENCE-DUTY TO A SEEN TRESPASSER-CHILD TRESPASSERS

Authors

Abstract

The defendant was hired by the owner of some waste land to cut down a tree. The land was unfenced and the children of the neighborhood used. it as a playground, although they had no license to do so. When the cutting of the tree began, a crowd of children gathered, and though driven away they returned. With but one root remaining the defendant cut it without further warning, and the infant plaintiff was injured by the falling tree. The trial court found that the defendant was guilty of negligence; that this negligence was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injury; but that, as plaintiff was a trespasser, defendant was not liable for the injury. Held, that the defendant owed a duty, even to a trespasser, not to do an act which changed the condition of the land and injured the trespasser without prior warning. Mourton v. Poulter, (1930) 2 K. B. 183.

Recommended Citation

TORTS-NEGLIGENCE-DUTY TO A SEEN TRESPASSER-CHILD TRESPASSERS, 29 Mich. L. Rev. 530 (1931).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol29/iss4/40