Latimer Ex Rel. Grayes v. City of Clovis

495 P.2d 788, 83 N.M. 610
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 10, 1972
Docket722
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 495 P.2d 788 (Latimer Ex Rel. Grayes v. City of Clovis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Latimer Ex Rel. Grayes v. City of Clovis, 495 P.2d 788, 83 N.M. 610 (N.M. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinions

OPINION

WOOD, Chief Judge.

This is a wrongful death case. The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The issue is the propriety of the summary judgment. We discuss each of the reasons the trial court listed in granting the summary judgment. They are: (1) no liability under the doctrine of attractive nuisance; (2) absence of negligence on the part of defendant; (3) assumption of risk by and negligence of decedent; (4) negligence of parents as proximate cause and assumption of risk by parents; and (5) no act of defendant was the proximate cause and there was an independent intervening cause. Issue No. 6, raised by defendant, is that plaintiff failed to attack a basis for granting the summary judgment.

Facts and inferences supported by the record are:

Mack Allen Grayes, age 5, drowned after falling into water in a fenced swimming pool located in defendant’s park. The park was across the street from where Mack lived with his mother, brothers and sister. The family had lived at this location for approximately five years.

The park is open the entire year; the pool is open from June to September. A contractor, in connection with submitting a bid for construction work at the pool, inspected the pool on or about April 7, 1969. At the time of this inspection there was no collection of water any place within the pool area. On the accident date, April 18, 1969, water had collected in the deep end of the pool to a depth of slightly less than six feet. There is an “estimate” that the water had collected after a rain.

On the accident date, the mother, accompanied by her children, went to the park to play softball. She gave her sons permission to play on the swings. After playing on the swings, monkey bars and see-saw, running some races and wrestling with one another, the boys’ attention was directed to a hole in the fence around the pool.

The boys were: Mike Grayes, age 7, Mack and his twin brother Mark, and a friend named Gregory. Mike saw the hole in the fence and asked the other boys if they wanted to come into the pool with him. They went through the hole in the fence. They went down into the dry portion of the pool, threw rocks into the water in the deep end and played around the edge of the pool before Mack fell in. The estimated time from entry into the pool area until Mack’s fall is ten minutes.

The estimated distance from the pool to where the mother was playing softball varies from 50 feet to one-half block. The pool area was visible from where the mother was playing softball. The mother could have seen the boys enter the pool area if she had kept an eye on them.

The Grayes children had been specifically warned about the hazards of water. According to the mother, they knew or should have known of the dangers related to water. The mother had told Mike not to go into the pool area when it was closed. She had warned Mack to stay away from the pool; that the water was not safe.

Mike had seen other, and older, children climb the fence and go into the pool area, but the time and date of this observation is not clear. On the day of the accident, the mother did not know the boys had entered the pool area, and Mike had forgotten he wasn’t supposed to be in the pool area. According to the grandfather, he had explained the danger of water but Mack, the deceased, “wasn’t aware of it because he was too young;” he had no knowledge of danger.

There is nothing indicating that prior to April 18, 1969, anyone knew that water had collected in the deep end of the pool. The boys saw the water after entering through the hole in the fence. The affidavit of defendant’s superintendent of parks states that he is in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of the park and pool; that he had been in and around the park pursuant to his duties as superintendent and was unaware that water had collected in the deep portion of the pool until subsequent to the drowning.

There is nothing indicating how long the hole had existed in the fence. The grandfather characterized the hole in the fence as a three foot opening and stated' that anybody that had been there should have seen the opening. The mother and Mike stated they were unaware of the hole prior to the accident. The park superintendent made no statement in his affidavit concerning the hole. There is nothing in the record indicating either knowledge or lack of knowledge on the part of the City concerning the hole.

The mother and the father of the Grayes boys were divoced; the father had abandoned his family; the father’s whereabouts were unknown; the mother had custody of the children.

Is there liability under the doctrine of attractive nuisance?

The elements of the doctrine of attractive nuisance are stated in Saul v. Roman Catholic Church of Arch. of Santa Fe, 75 N.M. 160, 402 P.2d 48 (1965) and Klaus v. Eden, 70 N.M. 371, 374 P.2d 129 (1962). Defendant asserts that three of the elements are absent. Since all elements must concur if the doctrine is to -be applied, Saul, supra, we consider each of the allegedly missing elements.

1. One element is: The place where thé condition is maintained is one upon which the possessor knows or should know that children are likely to trespass. Klaus v. Eden, supra. Defendant asserts the ques2 tion is whether the City had knowledge'of should have had knowledge that children came into the pool area to play at a time when the pool was closed. It asserts: “ * * * There is nothing in the record to indicate any actual knowledge of trespassing children on the part of the representatives of the City of Clovis. * * * ”

Absent some evidence showing how long the hole in the fence had existed, we agree that there is nothing in the present record showing that the City knew or should have known that children were likely to trespass in the pool area. However, there is also nothing in the record showing the absence of the requisite knowledge.

Defendant had the burden of showing an absence of the requisite knowledge. Brock v. Goodman, 83 N.M. 580, 494 P.2d 1397, decided February 11, 1972; Sanchez v. Shop Rite Foods, 82 N.M. 369, 482 P.2d 72 (Ct.App.1971). Since no such showing was made, summary judgment on the basis of this element of the doctrine of attractive nuisance was improper.

The City’s argument is directed at an absence of a showing by the plaintiff that a factual issue existed as to this element. The argument is misdirected. Until defendant made a prima facie showing that there was no fact issue as to this element, plaintiff was not required to show that a fact issue existed. Brock v. Goodman, supra; Sanchez v. Shop Rite Foods, supra. Summary judgment as to this element was improper.

2. . Another allegedly missing element is: The condition is one of which the possessor knows or should know and which he realizes or should realize as involving an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to children. Klaus v. Eden, supra.

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495 P.2d 788, 83 N.M. 610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/latimer-ex-rel-grayes-v-city-of-clovis-nmctapp-1972.