Wrinkle v. Norman

301 P.3d 312, 297 Kan. 420, 2013 WL 2129431, 2013 Kan. LEXIS 457
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 17, 2013
DocketNo. 103,373
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 301 P.3d 312 (Wrinkle v. Norman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wrinkle v. Norman, 301 P.3d 312, 297 Kan. 420, 2013 WL 2129431, 2013 Kan. LEXIS 457 (kan 2013).

Opinions

Per Curiam:

The appellant, Rodney Wrinkle, was injured in the course of providing aid to a calf that he was escorting onto a neighbor s property. He sued to recover medical damages from the neighbor, and the district court granted the Normans’ motion for summary judgment. Because the district court applied the incorrect standard for the duty of care in this case, we remand for die submission of new arguments predicated on the proper duty.

Based on the pleadings and the record developed through deposition testimony, the circumstances of Wrinkle’s injuiy were as follows:

[421]*421On the aftemaon of March 10, 2006, Wrinkle and his friend Raymond Lee observed four or five cows wandering loose in front of property belonging to Gene and Charlene Norman, and some of the cattle were straying toward the highway that ran between Wrinkle’s and the Normans’ property. Wrinkle was riding his lawn tractor, and he signaled to approaching cars to slow down. Initially riding on his lawn tractor and then going on foot, Wrinkle proceeded to herd the cattle into the Normans’ yard. The Normans’ gate was open, and Wrinkle herded the cows through the gate toward a pen. Wrinkle testified at his deposition that he had no reason to believe that the Normans consented to his entry onto their land.

A clothesline wire was attached in some fashion to a pole in the Normans’ yard. According to his deposition testimony, Wrinkle did not see how it was attached when he entered the yard; it may have been hanging looped like a lasso over the pole, and some of it may have extended to the ground.

As Wrinkle herded tire cattle across the Normans’ yard toward the cow pen, one calf strayed into the clothesline wire, caught the line around its neck, and began to choke. Wrinkle grabbed the back of the clothesline and walked around to the other side, flipping the line several times in order to remove tire line from the calfs neck. The calf took off running toward the gate of the pen, apparently catching the clothesline somehow, so that the clothesline caught Wrinkle from behind. Wrinkle’s feet went out from under him, and he landed on his back on a concrete pad.

Wrinkle immediately experienced severe pain. Lee helped him get home, and Wrinkle eventually went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken back. He was hospitalized for 30 days. Afterward, he approached the Normans in person about the injury and later wrote a letter in which he asked that they submit to their insurance carrier a claim for $44,115.72, which was the outstanding balance on his hospital bill. The Normans apparently refused to arrange for payment of the medical expenses.

Wrinkle then filed an action grounded in negligence alleging that the Normans had created a dangerous condition on their property [422]*422that presented an unreasonable risk of harm by- leaving their gate open and by leaving a clothesline wire running across the ground.

The Normans filed a motion for summary judgment. They maintained that Wrinlde was a trespasser on their land, that they were not negligent because they were unaware that their clothesline presented a danger, and that Wrinlde failed to proffer evidence that they did not take reasonable care for the safety of others.

The district court granted the Normans’ motion for summary judgment, holding that Wrinkle was a trespasser on the Normans’ property and they had breached no duty toward him. The district court denied Wrinkle’s motion to alter or amend judgment, and Wrinkle filed a timely notice of appeal.

In a published opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court. Wrinkle v. Norman, 44 Kan. App. 2d 950, 242 P.3d 1216 (2010). This court granted review without limitation.

The Duty of Care

A landowner’s duty to both invitees and licensees is one of reasonable care under all the circumstances. Jones v. Hansen, 254 Kan. 499, Syl. ¶ 2, 867 P.2d 303 (1994). The landowner owes trespassers, on the other hand, only the duty “to refrain from willfully, wantonly, or recklessly injuring” the trespasser. 254 Kan. at 510.

The district court found that Wrinlde did not have express or implied permission to enter the Normans’ property and he was therefore a trespasser. Because he was a trespasser, the Normans owed him a duty only to refrain from willfully, wantonly, or recklessly injuring him.

The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Wrinkle was a trespasser because “there was no evidence that the cattle were owned by the Normans.” 44 Kan. App. 2d at 956. The court further held that, even if Wrinkle were privileged by private necessity to enter the Normans’ property, the Normans owed no greater duty of care toward him than they would to a trespasser. In so holding, the court relied on an Illinois appellate case, Lange v. Fisher Real Estate Develop., 358 Ill. App. 3d 962, 970, 832 N.E.2d 274 (2005):

“One could argue, as die plaintiff does, that a trespasser who enters the property of another under private necessity, considered to be a licensee, is now entitled [423]*423to the greater protection of reasonable care since there is no longer a distinction between licensees and invitees. We would disagree with such an argument. We believe that the abolishment of the licensee/invitee distinction in Illinois would not heighten the duties owed by a possessor of land to a person who enters his land under private necessity. There can be no logical reason to afford a greater protection of reasonable care to such a person, who, in actuality, is a trespasser and who enters the property without the possessor’s permission and without benefit to the possessor.” ’ [Citation omitted.]” 44 Kan. App. 2d at 956.

The Court of Appeals then asserted that Wrinkle had made no showing that the cattle belonged to the Normans and he must therefore have been a trespasser. That conclusion was dubious; there was some evidence both for and against ownership of the cattle by tire Normans, and a jury could probably have come to either conclusion. The evidence supporting the theory that the Normans owned the cattle consisted of some testimony that Wrinkle had seen cattle on the Normans’ land in previous years and that some people reported having seen cattle on the Normans’ land right around the time of Wrinkle’s injury. Furthermore, Wrinkle testified that he had no difficulty herding the cattle onto the Normans’ land, as if the cattle were familiar with the gate and the pen. In addition, Gene Norman testified that he never found strange cattle in his pen, which would be surprising if Wrinkle had in fact herded someone else’s cattle onto his property. But this issue of fact loses its importance in light of the credible testimony that Wrinkle had a valid reason to believe that the cattle belonged to the Normans, even if he was wrong.

Wrinkle urges this court to adopt the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 197 (1965), relating to private necessity as an exception to the rules of trespass. Wrinkle contends that the Restatement section, if adopted in Kansas, would enhance the duty that the Normans owed him. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 197 creates a privilege in the event of necessity:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
301 P.3d 312, 297 Kan. 420, 2013 WL 2129431, 2013 Kan. LEXIS 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wrinkle-v-norman-kan-2013.