Mercer v. Fritts

676 P.2d 150, 9 Kan. App. 2d 232, 1984 Kan. App. LEXIS 290
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 2, 1984
Docket54,391
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 676 P.2d 150 (Mercer v. Fritts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mercer v. Fritts, 676 P.2d 150, 9 Kan. App. 2d 232, 1984 Kan. App. LEXIS 290 (kanctapp 1984).

Opinions

Woleslagel, J.:

Appellant, Renee George Mercer (Renee) appeals from a summary judgment in favor of her social hosts, appellees Elden Fritts (Elden) and Betty Fritts (Betty). At Elden’s invitation, she was riding an English-saddled American saddle-bred stallion on a suburban plot owned by her hosts. She had no difficulty until Elden saddled and rode a mare. When the stallion became aware of the mare, it became unruly, finally rearing and falling on Renee with resulting extensive physical injuries to her body.

The question before us is not so much what is injury-by-animal law or what is owner and occupier (premises) law, as it is which law applies to this occurrence. We find that animal law has significant relationship to this occurrence while premises law has no relationship at all. Accordingly we reverse.

Renee is one of the daughters of a lady who had recently married a nephew of the hosts. With her mother, her sister, and the nephew and his daughter, she had eaten a get-acquainted dinner at the hosts’ 12-acre plot outside of Mayetta where Elden [233]*233kept two stallions and a mare. The group went outside and Elden saddled a middle-aged stallion he had owned since its birth and ridden for nine years. He rode it a few minutes for warmup, and asked Renee if she wanted to ride. She accepted.

Considerable detail as to the circumstances of the invitation and its acceptance were available at the hearing of the defendants’ motion for summary judgment from depositions of the parties. The stallion was accustomed to the English saddle and had never before reared. Never before, however, had Elden ridden the mare near where someone else was riding the stallion.

Renee told Elden that she was an experienced rider, having had lessons and ridden for eleven years, including participation in some horse shows and rodeos, and was acquainted with the western saddle and bareback riding. Elden assured Renee that if she could ride bareback she would not have a problem with the English saddle which, unlike the western saddle, lacks a saddle horn. She was not told that he was going to ride the mare. She was given directions for general control of the horse and told that he was fairly spirited. He also told her to ride in the field north of the house, which she did.

Elden watched for awhile, and observing no difficulty, saddled the mare and rode it south and east of the barn. It was only when Renee was returning the stallion to the barn that she and the stallion noticed the mare. She got the stallion to the house where it became unruly and started turning in circles. Betty told her to take it to the barn. Instead, she ended up in the north field again where the stallion bucked and finally reared and fell backward on her. Injuries included a ruptured diaphragm, a collapsed lung and fractures of the pelvis and lumbar vertebrae.

Renee testified she thought Elden believed she was an experienced rider and had no intention of injuring her but was doing her a favor. She also thought she would have avoided injury bareback or with a saddle horn. Betty thought Renee was in trouble when she was back at the house, but in control when returning to the field. Elden thought Renee’s riding was competent when he went to saddle the mare.

A veterinarian testified by deposition that stallions are not as trustworthy as geldings or mares and become excited because of their sex drive and other characteristics. As a class, the American [234]*234saddle-bred stallion is high-spirited and a stallion will on occasion “act up.” He opined that Renee was not an experienced rider and should not have been put on the stallion, but, if allowed to ride the stallion, Elden should have put her in a controlled area and stayed with her.

Renee claimed Elden was negligent in furnishing a saddle that was inadequate and strange to her and also in bringing the mare out and arousing the stallion.

Defendant’s summary judgment motion centered upon premises law in that Renee was an admitted licensee and neither gross negligence nor wanton conduct was pleaded. The sole issue before us is whether summary judgment was proper under the pleadings and evidence before the trial court. In arguing that it was not, Renee makes several assertions which we will abbreviate. They are:

1. Determining the duty owed to persons solely according to the type of mission that brings them to the premises should be abandoned and a reasonable duty of care depending on the circumstances should be adopted in its place.

2. Failing that adoption, at least an active negligence exception to premises law should be adopted.

3. The Kansas law that should apply in this case is not premises law but is injury by animal law as set out in PIK Civ. 2d 12.92.

The Kansas rule regarding consideration of motions for summary judgment is: The court should interpret the evidence available in the light most favorable to the party who resisted the motion. McAlister v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 233 Kan. 252, Syl. ¶¶ 1, 4, 662 P.2d 1203 (1983).

Amend Kansas Owners and Occupiers Law

Renee pulls out many stops in claiming it is archaic that our present law classifies the status of visitors and resulting duty owed to them. She points to writings suggesting that this law is a vestige of undue influence of the “landed gentry.” She suggests that it is significant that the source of this law, England, has finally statutorily abandoned it. She points out that many states have now judicially substituted the ordinary tort standard: negligent conduct under all circumstances, coupled with foreseeability of possible injury (“fault,” as it is now termed in PIK Civ. 2d). She is upset by what she considers to have been an erroneous interpretation of Hawkins, Premises Liability After Repudi[235]*235ation of the Status Categories: Allocation of Judge and Jury Functions, 1981 Utah L. Rev. 15, as set forth in Britt v. Allen County Community Jr. College, 230 Kan. 502, 506-507, 638 P.2d 914 (1982). She is upset that injurious conduct is actionable if committed at location “X,” but somehow becomes of no legal consequence if committed at location “Y,” a foot north — or east — of location “X.”

We are impressed but we are. not moved. It is not that the members of this panel would oppose the substitution. It is simply that this court has a policy that prevents it from ruling contrary to recent holdings of our Supreme Court. As stated in State v. Miller, 6 Kan. App. 2d 432, 434, 629 P.2d 748 (1981), we are “duty-bound to follow the law as established by the Supreme Court of our state in the absence of some indication that it is departing from its previously expressed position.” The same restraint is stated in In re Lett & Jackson, 7 Kan. App. 2d 329, 335, 640 P.2d 1294, rev. denied 231 Kan. 800 (1982) (concurring opinion), as being appropriate “unless a valid reason exists to believe the Supreme Court would reach a different result if it were to reconsider the issue.” There can be no question that the majority of our Supreme Court rejected Renee’s position in Britt. Britt was a recently decided case and controls here.

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Mercer v. Fritts
676 P.2d 150 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
676 P.2d 150, 9 Kan. App. 2d 232, 1984 Kan. App. LEXIS 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mercer-v-fritts-kanctapp-1984.