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Keywords

liabilitywillduty of care

tortplaintiffdamagesappealtrialwillsustainedduty of careappellantappelleejury trial

Related Cases

Murphy v. Baltimore Gas and Elec. Co., 290 Md. 186, 428 A.2d 459

Facts

Timothy Paul Murphy was injured when he came into contact with an electrical transformer owned by Baltimore Gas & Electric Company while searching for his stolen radio. The transformer was located in a dark area near a bowling alley, and Murphy mistakenly believed it was a rubbish container. In a separate incident, 3.5-year-old Christopher Smith drowned in a pond owned by Reeders Memorial Home, which had allowed public access for years. The pond had previously been fenced, but the fence was in disrepair, and signs had disappeared, leading to uninhibited access.

In the first case we ponder, appellant Timothy Paul Murphy obtained a judgment in the amount of $150,000.00 following a jury trial in the Superior Court of Baltimore City for damages sustained when his hand came in contact with an electrical transformer owned by appellee Baltimore Gas & Electric Company. The other case we consider arose out of the death by drowning on October 7, 1977, of 31/2 year old Christopher Smith in a pond belonging to appellee, Reeders Memorial Home, Inc.

Issue

Whether property owners owe a duty of care to trespassers, specifically in cases involving injuries from dangerous conditions on their property.

The Court of Appeals, Digges, J., held that: (1) trespasser who was injured when his hand came in contact with an electrical transformer owned by electric company could not recover from electric company, which owed no duty of care to such a trespasser; (2) exception to rule providing for no duty of care by owners of real and personal property to trespassers would not be recognized on the basis of unique circumstances surrounding the drowning death of three-year-old infant in pond to which landowner permitted constant public access for ten years, and in which two other children had drowned; and (3) fact that county may have failed to require that landowner comply with ordinance requiring a fence or other enclosure around bodies of water, and prevented landowner from draining pond located on its property, in order that the county could purchase the property at a reduced price did not render the county liable in tort to parents of child who drowned in landowner's pond.

Rule

Property owners generally owe no duty of care to trespassers, except to refrain from willfully or wantonly injuring them. Exceptions to this rule are rarely recognized.

The law is clear that no plaintiff here can recover. As we have frequently said before, if there is to be a change in the law with respect to the duty owed a trespasser by a property owner, we think the Legislature should make it.

Analysis

The court applied the established rule that property owners do not owe a duty of care to trespassers. In Murphy's case, the court found that the electric company had no obligation to protect a trespasser from injury caused by its transformer. In the Smith case, the court rejected the argument for an exception based on the landowner's prior knowledge of drownings, emphasizing that the general rule of no liability for trespassers remained intact.

The basis for the existing allocation of responsibility between owner and trespasser, reaffirmed today, has so frequently been broadcast by this Court over the last century that it would be superfluous to do more here than refer those interested to the cases earlier cited and the authorities relied on in each.

Conclusion

The court affirmed the lower court's judgments, ruling that neither the electric company nor the landowner was liable for the injuries and death of the trespassers.

The judgments as entered in each of the two cases before us will be affirmed.

Who won?

Baltimore Gas & Electric Company and Reeders Memorial Home, as the court found no duty of care owed to the trespassers.

Affirmed.

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