Smith v. Jacob Dold Packing Co.

82 Mo. App. 9, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 483
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 4, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 82 Mo. App. 9 (Smith v. Jacob Dold Packing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Jacob Dold Packing Co., 82 Mo. App. 9, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 483 (Mo. Ct. App. 1899).

Opinion

GILL, J.

As will be seen by the accompanying plat, the packing houses of the Dold Packing Company at Kansas City are located in what is known as the “West Bottoms” and at the northeast corner of Ninth and Wyoming streets. At the north end of its property the packing company has its engine house where several boilers and furnaces are had to furnish the power for the machinery. Immediately north of this lies a large tract of lowland, unoccupied except by several railroad tracks, and running to the Missouri river. This lowland is in times of high water overflowed,- and when the ■tide recedes there is ordinarily left some small pools or ponds. At the time in question (August 10, 1896) this ground was open and uncovered by water, except that a pond of water was left as indicated on the plat, some one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet north of the defendant’s engine house and a like distance north of the northern end of Wyoming street. This land, too, is unplatted, having no streets, alleys or highways through it, and at. the time of the accident, hereinafter mentioned, was owned by the Suburban Belt Company. Under consent of this owner the Dold Packing Company had been in the habit of dumping on this vacant ground the ashes and cinders taken from its engine house, and they were deposited in a large heap near the pond. From plain[12]*12tiff’s evidence it would seem that these cinders and ashes continued to burn and smolder in this heap.

It seems -that the boys of the neighborhood were in the habit of resorting to the pond, in question, to fish and swim. On August 10, 1896, this plaintiff (a boy about four years old) was standing near the pond watching other boys fishing. One of these caught a fish, and offered it to the boy that should first get to him. Thereupon this plaintiff, in the effort to get the fish, attempted to run across the ash heap, and in doing so his feet broke through the outer crust and went into the hot ashes or smoldering fire from which he received the personal injuries compláined of in this suit. In an action for damages plaintiff recovered and defendant appealed.

After a patient consideration of the record in this case and the numerous authorities bearing thereon, we feel bound to reverse the judgment and to hold that under the conceded facts plaintiff can not recover. The action is grounded on the alleged negligence of 'the defendant in creating and maintaining the unprotected and unguarded pile of hot ashes and cinders near the pond of water which was attractive to, and frequently visited by the boys of that vicinity. The question then is, whether or not the facts disclosed by the record (and which we have substantially set out in the foregoing statement) show that defendant failed to perform a duty which at the time it owed to the plaintiff. We think they do not. Unquestionably now the plaintiff was a trespasser at the place where he was injured. He had no right there, and the defendant nor the owner of the property owed him no further duty than not to wantonly injure him after discovering his presence. It is an old and , well settled principle of law that one is under no obligation to keep his premises in a safe condition for the visits of trespassers. When such persons enter unbidden and unsolicited on the lands or premises of another, they do so at their peril; the owner is not bound to look after the safety of such intruders and to protect them [14]*14from clangers. If, however, there be an invitation, express or implied, from the owner or proprietor to the other party to enter on the premises, then such party is not a trespasser and the owner or proprietor is bound to exercise ordinary diligence to protect the visitor. But there is no implied invitation when one’s entrance upon dangerous premises is simply ■unopposed by the owner. Cooley on Torts, 606 (side page). And this is the rule, too, whether the intruder be an infant or an adult.

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Bluebook (online)
82 Mo. App. 9, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-jacob-dold-packing-co-moctapp-1899.