City of Dayton v. McLaughlin

552 N.E.2d 965, 50 Ohio App. 3d 69, 1988 Ohio App. LEXIS 2744
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 6, 1988
Docket10650
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 552 N.E.2d 965 (City of Dayton v. McLaughlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Dayton v. McLaughlin, 552 N.E.2d 965, 50 Ohio App. 3d 69, 1988 Ohio App. LEXIS 2744 (Ohio Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

Fain, J.

Defendant-appellant, Chuck McLaughlin, appeals from his convictions and sentences for violating Sections 91.50(A)(5) and 91.50(B) of the city of Dayton Revised Code of General Ordinances (“R.C.G.O.”). These sections pertain to an owner permitting a dog to bite another, and an owner keeping a vicious dog, respectively. With respect to the first charge, McLaughlin had interposed an affirmative defense based upon the victim’s having been unlawfully on his property. McLaughlin claims that the trial court erred when it rejected his affirmative defense, holding that the victim was not unlawfully upon McLaughlin’s property. McLaughlin also claims that the two offenses are allied *71 offenses of similar import within the contemplation of R.C. 2941.25, so that the trial court erred by convicting him of both offenses.

McLaughlin’s assertion that the victim was unlawfully upon McLaughlin’s property is not supportable, since implied permission to be on the property was given to the victim. Therefore, that assignment of error is overruled. We agree with McLaughlin, however, that the two offenses are allied offenses of similar import, so that he could not be convicted of both.

I

One afternoon in mid-July, Kenneth Stupp, age seven, and his grandmother, Audra Griesheimer, age seventy-one, were delivering newspapers for the regular carrier. They were on foot. They delivered the last newspaper to McLaughlin’s house at 124 South Findlay, in Dayton.

Stupp delivered the newspaper by going onto McLaughlin’s property, up his porch steps and tossing the newspaper onto the porch. The temperature was ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit, and Griesheimer was feeling the heat. She recognized that if she walked up McLaughlin’s driveway and then alongside his garage, she would get to the alley which led directly to her home. Consequently, rather than leaving McLaughlin’s property the same way they came in, Stupp and his grandmother walked down McLaughlin’s driveway, intending to exit by the alley to the rear of McLaughlin’s property. They did not leave and re-enter McLaughlin’s property.

Although there was a sign in McLaughlin’s front yard which said “Guard Dog On Duty,” and Grieshei-mer had noted the sign, there was no fence, sign, or obstacle along their path from McLaughlin’s front porch to his driveway and down the driveway to the alley at the rear of his property.

McLaughlin owned a dog, described by him as part “shepherd” and part “chow,” which was tied to a tree next to the driveway. Neither Stupp nor his grandmother saw the dog at first, because the dog was hidden by the tree. When Stupp first noticed the dog, he turned and began moving away from it, but before he could get away, the dog attacked and bit Stupp on the buttocks and rectum, throwing him down in the process, and then biting him again on the left arm below the elbow. The rectal bite required surgery; the bite on the arm required stitches.

McLaughlin, who was not present at the time of these events, was charged with violating R.C.G.O. 91.50 (A)(5), which provides as follows:

“(A) No person owning, keeping, possessing, harboring, maintaining, or having the care, custody, or control of a dog shall suffer or permit such dog to:
“(i) * * *
* *
“(5) Bite or otherwise cause physical harm to any other person, domestic animal, or feline.”

McLaughlin was also charged with violating R.C.G.O. 91.50(B), which provides as follows:

“No person shall own, keep, possess, harbor, maintain, or have the care, custody, or control of a vicious dog within the city.”

To the charge of violating R.C.G.O. 91.50(A)(5), McLaughlin interposed the affirmative defense provided for by R.C.G.O. 91.50(D)(2), which provides as follows:

“It shall be an affirmative defense to a violation of § 91.50(A)(3), (4), and (5) that at the time of the occurrence such other person, domestic animal or feline was unlawfully on the property owned or controlled by the owner of *72 such dog and that such dog was not unsecured.”

The trial court held that Stupp was not unlawfully on McLaughlin’s property, and found McLaughlin guilty of both offenses. From his conviction and sentences, McLaughlin appeals.

II

McLaughlin’s first assignment of error is as follows:

“The trial court erred in holding that the newspaper carriers were lawfully on appellant’s property, thus the affirmative defense set forth in R.C.G.O. Section 91.50(D)(2) was inapplicable.”

Essentially, McLaughlin argues that the trial court erred, as a matter of law, in holding that Stupp was not unlawfully on the property.

While McLaughlin concedes that Stupp had implied consent to enter upon McLaughlin’s premises for the purpose of delivering a newspaper, since McLaughlin was a newspaper subscriber, he contends that that consent did not extend beyond the ingress, access and egress necessary to accomplish the delivery of the newspaper. Thus, when Stupp and his grandmother decided to leave McLaughlin’s property by way of the driveway and alley to the rear of the property, for their own convenience, they exceeded the scope of the implied consent to be upon McLaughlin’s property; therefore, according to McLaughlin, they became trespassers at that point, and were no longer lawfully upon his property.

The prosecutor argues that “unlawfully” for purposes of the affirmative defense specified in R.C.G.O. 91.50(D)(2) necessarily implies a criminal trespass, and cites those provisions of the city of Dayton Revised Code of General Ordinances pertaining to criminal trespass to show that Stupp and his grandmother were not criminal trespassers.

We find it unnecessary to determine whether “unlawfully” as used in R.C.G.O. 91.50(D)(2) necessarily implies a criminal trespass. Even if a mere trespass for civil liability purposes is deemed to be “unlawful” in this context, we conclude that Stupp was not a trespasser in that sense.

It is undisputed that Stupp and his grandmother were not trespassers when they entered upon the property, since they had implied consent to do so. We agree with the following statement in Cochran v. Dowd (C.P. 1962), 91 Ohio Law Abs. 247, 254, affirmed (1962), 91 Ohio Law Abs. 256:

“The duty to keep premises safe for invitees extends to all of the operations of the premises which are included within the invitation and which it is necessary or convenient for the invitee to visit or use in the course of business for which the invitation was extended or at which his invitation was extended or at which his presence should therefore reasonably be anticipated or to which he is allowed to go.”

Stupp and his grandmother went upon McLaughlin’s property for a legitimate purpose, for which they had implied consent. In leaving the property, they found it more convenient to go by way of the driveway and rear alley, rather than back the way they came.

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Bluebook (online)
552 N.E.2d 965, 50 Ohio App. 3d 69, 1988 Ohio App. LEXIS 2744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-dayton-v-mclaughlin-ohioctapp-1988.