King v. Lennen, 348 P.2d 98 (Cal. 1959). · Go Syfert
King v. Lennen, 348 P.2d 98 (Cal. 1959). Cases Citing This Book View Copy Cite
117 citation events (8 in the last 25 years) across 14 distinct courts.
Strongest positive: Zaragoza v. Ibarra (calctapp, 2009-06-08) · Strongest negative: Martinez v. CR Davis Contracting Company (nm, 1964-01-13)
Treatment trajectory · 1959 → 2026 · click a year to view as-of
1959 1992 2026
Top citers, strongest first. 18 distinct citers. How cited ↗
discussed Overruled in part Martinez v. CR Davis Contracting Company (2×)
N.M. · 1964 · signal: contra · confidence bake:review_partial
Co., 1954, 265 Wis. 618 , 62 N.W.2d 415 ; contra, King v. Lennen, 1959, 53 Cal.2d 340 , 348 P.2d 98 (involving a 1½-year-old child and disapproving Melendez v. City of Los Angeles, supra, insofar as applicable to children too young to appreciate the danger).
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Zaragoza v. Ibarra
Cal. Ct. App. · 2009 · confidence medium
There are no facts in the record suggesting it was defective. 10 To the degree that Doyle stands for the idea that the ordinary obviousness of a danger precludes liability for attractive nuisances to minors, it was overruled in King v. Lennen (1959) 53 Cal.2d 340, 344 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ].
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Domingue v. Presley of Southern California (2×)
Cal. Ct. App. · 1988 · confidence medium
(King v. Lennen (1959) 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ]; Garcia v. Soogian (1959) 52 Cal.2d 107, 110 [ 338 P.2d 433 ]; Courtell v. McEachen (1959) 51 Cal.2d 448, 457-458 [ 334 P.2d 870 ]; Reynolds v. Willson (1958) supra, 51 Cal.2d 94, 98 .) Since the date of those decisions, however, the Restatement Second of Torts has been promulgated.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Bosin v. Oak Lodge Sanitary District No. 1
Or. · 1968 · confidence medium
If he is to be protected at all, the person who can do it with the least inconvenience is the one upon whose land he strays." Similarly, Chief Justice Gibson, speaking for the court in King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 344 , 1 Cal. Rptr. 665, 667 , 348 P.2d 98, 100 (cited with approval in Pocholec, 224 Or. at 259 , 355 P.2d 1104 ), said: "* * * Even very young children cannot always be kept under the supervision of their parents, and the question whether a parent in a wrongful death case was guilty of contributory negligence in permitting his young child to play unattended near the defendant's pr…
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Cardenas v. Turlock Irrigation District
Cal. Ct. App. · 1968 · confidence medium
Government Code section 831.8, subdivision (d) provides: “(d) Nothing in this section exonerates a public entity . . . from liability for injury proximately caused by a dangerous condition of property if: (1) The person injured was less than 12 years of age; (2) The dangerous condition created a substantial and unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to children under 12 years of age using the property or adjacent property with due care in a manner in which it was reasonably foreseeable that it would be used; (3) The person injured, because of his immaturity, did not discover the c…
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Hibbs v. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist.
Cal. Ct. App. · 1967 · confidence medium
Code, Anno. § 831.8, pp. 183-184.) It is apparent that in enacting Government Code, section 831.8 subdivision (d) the legislature wholly adopted *171 the standard of liability of a possessor of land to children which has been outlined in Restatement, Second of Torts, § 339, and which had been specifically adopted by the Supreme Court in King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ], to compel the fencing of swimming pools.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) O'Keefe v. South End Rowing Club
Cal. · 1966 · confidence medium
(King v. Lennen (1959) 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ]; Garcia v. Soogian (1959) 52 Cal.2d 107, 110 [ 338 P.2d 433 ]; Courtell v. McEachen (1959) 51 Cal.2d 448, 457-458 [ 334 P.2d 870 ]; Reynolds v. Willson (1958) supra, 51 Cal.2d 94, 98 .) Since the date of those decisions, however, the Restatement Second of Torts has been promulgated.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Walker v. Fresno Distributing Co.
Cal. Ct. App. · 1965 · confidence medium
Still another statement of the doctrine is that one who maintains on his property a condition, instrumentality, machine, or other agency dangerous to children of tender years by reason of their inability to appreciate the peril, and of which he knows or should know, or realizes or should realize, that it involves unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to such children, is under a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect them against the dangers of such agency, and is negligent if he fails to comply with this duty. ’ ’ The Restatement of Torts, section 339, states that in the …
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Kemline v. Simonds
Cal. Ct. App. · 1964 · confidence medium
And, as stated by our Supreme Court in *170 King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ] “The rule set forth in section 339 of the Restatement of Torts has been adopted as the law of this state with respect to the liability of a possessor of land. ...” The evidence also makes the issue of contributory negligence one of fact, not of law.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Joslin v. Southern Pacific Co.
Cal. Ct. App. · 1961 · confidence medium
The attractive nuisance doctrine in California follows section 339 of the Restatement of Torts and the rule is summarized in King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, p. 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ], as follows: “The rule set forth in section 339 of the Restatement of Torts has been adopted as the law of this state with respect to the liability of a possessor of land for the death of or injury to a child trespasser.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Welch v. Gardner
Cal. Ct. App. · 1960 · confidence medium
(King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 344 [ 348 P.2d 98 ].) The last question raised involves an instruction based upon Vehicle Code, section 21956, formerly Vehicle Code, section 564, to the effect that: “A roadway is that part of the highway which is improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular traffic.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Hickey v. Nulty (2×)
Cal. Ct. App. · 1960 · confidence medium
(King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ]; Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107 [ 338 P.2d 433 ].) The universal rule appears to be that the doctrine of section 339 does not apply to moving vehicles.
discussed Cited as authority (rule) Helguera v. Cirone
Cal. Ct. App. · 1960 · confidence medium
In King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 343 [ 348 P.2d 98 ], our Supreme Court reiterated the rule announced in Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107 [ 338 P.2d 433 ], that the question of liability must be decided in the light of all circumstances and not by arbitrarily placing cases in rigid categories on the basis of the type of condition involved.
examined Cited "see" Smith v. Americania Motor Lodge (3×)
Cal. Ct. App. · 1974 · signal: see · confidence high
(Cardenas v. Turlock Irrigation Dist., supra; see King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 344 [ 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98 ].) Instruction on Contributory Negligence of Decedents Appellants argue that the trial court erred when it instructed the jury as to the contributory negligence of the decedents.
discussed Cited "see, e.g." BROWN v. DEMPSTER (2×)
Okla. · 2024 · signal: see also · confidence medium
See also King v. Lennen , 348 P.2d 98, 101 (Cal. 1959) (holding the facts showed no adequate fencing and limited safeguards so the matter was a question for a jury); Giacona v. Tapley , 428 P.2d 439, 442-43 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1967) (affirming a jury verdict based on the attractive nuisance doctrine when a child drowned in a neighborhood pool because the defendants failed to erect adequate fencing); Simmons v. Whittington , 444 So.2d 1357, 1360-1361 (La.
examined Cited "see, e.g." Senogles v. Carlson (3×)
Minn. · 2017 · signal: see, e.g. · confidence low
See, e.g., King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340 , 1 Cal.Rptr. 665 , 348 P.2d 98, 99-100 (1959) (emphasizing that “the circumstance that a condition giving rise to injury is common in character does not necessarily exclude liability, that the ability to appreciate danger varies with the age and mental capacity of the child,” and holding that the 1-and-a-half-year-old child “could not reasonably be expected to realize or appreciate the danger” of a swimming pool); Bennett v. Stanley, 92 Ohio St.3d 35 , 748 N.E.2d 41, 44-45 (2001) (reversing and remanding a grant of summary judgment that dismiss…
discussed Cited "see, e.g." Torkelson v. City of Redlands (2×)
Cal. Ct. App. · 1961 · signal: see also · confidence medium
See also King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 345 [ 348 P.2d 98 ], and Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107, 111 [ 338 P.2d 433 ], rejecting the former rule.) Other cases cited by the defendant in support of its position are distinguishable from the case at bar for the reason that the decisions therein primarily were based on a finding, as a matter of law, that the public agency had no knowledge of the use of its property without the sphere of its designed or intended purpose and a consequent lack of knowledge *361 of the dangerous condition of that property arising from the actual, as distinguished fro…
discussed Cited "see, e.g." Torkelson v. City of Redlands (2×)
Cal. Ct. App. · 1961 · signal: see also · confidence medium
See also King v. Lennen, 53 Cal.2d 340, 345 [ 348 P.2d 98 ], and Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107, 111 [ 338 P.2d 433 ], rejecting the former rule.) Other cases cited by the defendant in support of its position are distinguishable from the ease at bar for the reason that the decisions therein primarily were based on a finding, as a matter of law, that the public agency had no knowledge of the use of its property without the sphere of its designed or intended purpose and a consequent lack of knowl edge of the dangerous condition of that property arising from the actual, as distinguished from th…
JOHN LAURENCE KING Et Al., Appellants,
v.
DONALD E. LENNEN Et Al., Respondents
L. A. 25591.
California Supreme Court.
Dec 31, 1959.
348 P.2d 98
1959 Cal. LEXIS 351
Hirson & Horn and George Zucker for Appellants., Belcher, Kearney & Fargo, Belcher, Henzie & Fargo and Lester E. Olson for Respondents.
Gibson, Spence.
Cited by 42 opinions  |  Published

Lead Opinion

GIBSON, C. J.

Plaintiffs brought this action for damages for the wrongful death of their son, Boyd, who drowned in defendants’ swimming pool. A general demurrer to the complaint was sustained without leave to amend, and plaintiffs have appealed from the ensuing judgment.

The allegations of the complaint may be summarized as follows: Defendants’ property was located on the northwest corner of an intersection, and they maintained an artificial swimming pool on the premises about 30 feet from one of the streets. Along that street defendants had partially constructed. a concrete block wall with an opening four feet wide directly opposite the pool, and facing the other street was a wood rail fence with openings through which children could readily enter. Defendants permitted their cow, two dogs, and three horses to roam freely near the pool. The animals and the pool could be seen by children of tender years who regularly used the streets adjacent to defendants’ premises, and, as defendants knew or should have known, such children, attracted by what they saw, habitually entered the premises and played with the animals and in and about the pool. The water in the pool was 3% feet deep at the shallow end and 9 feet at the deep end. It was dirty and opaque, and its depth could not be ascertained by looking into it. A sharp drop divided the shallow from the deep water, there were no steps, ladders, rails, or other fixtures to assist a person in the pool to hold on or to climb out, and the walls and bottom of the pool were lined with a slippery plastic material. Boyd,' who was 1% years old, lived with his parents on the southeast corner of the intersection diagonally across from defendants. During the five months immediately preceding the accident, defendants’ teen-age daughter had been employed as a baby sitter by plaintiffs for compensation, and in[*343] order to entertain Boyd on these occasions, as defendants knew or should have known, their daughter would bring him to their home and permit him to play with the animals near the pool, with the result that he became attracted to the animals and the pool. Due to the frequency of the babysitting arrangement the relationship was a continuing one, and, by reason of the relationship, Boyd on the date of his death was on the premises at the express invitation of defendants. No adults were present between 6 a. m. and 6 p. m. on weekdays, including the day when at approximately 11 a. m. Boyd’s body was found at the bottom of the pool. The pool constituted a dangerous condition and an unreasonable risk of bodily harm to children of tender years, who could not reasonably be expected to realize or appreciate the danger, and Boyd was attracted to the pool without knowledge of the danger. The usefulness of maintaining the pool was slight as compared with the risk involved, and reasonable safeguards could have been provided at small cost.

The rule set forth in section 339 of the Restatement of Torts has been adopted as the law of this state with respect to the liability of a possessor of land for the death of or injury to a child trespasser. (Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107, 110 [338 P.2d 433]; Courtell v. McEachen, 51 Cal.2d 448, 457 [334 P.2d 870]; Reynolds v. Willson, 51 Cal.2d 94, 103 [331 P.2d 48].) The section reads: “A possessor of land is subject to liability for bodily harm to young children trespassing thereon caused by a structure or other artificial condition which he maintains upon the land, if (a) the place where the condition is maintained is one upon which the possessor knows or should know that such children are likely to trespass, and (b) 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 such children, and (c) the children because of their youth do not discover the condition or realize the risk involved in intermeddling in it or in coming within the area made dangerous by it, and (d) the utility to the possessor of maintaining the condition is slight as compared to the risk to young children involved therein. ’ ’

As we explained in Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107, 110 [338 P.2d 433], the question of liability must be decided in the light of all the circumstances and not by arbitrarily placing cases in rigid categories on the basis of the type of condition involved. We also pointed out in that ease[*344] (52 Cal.2d at pp. 110-112) that the circumstances that a condition giving rise to injury is common in character does not necessarily exclude liability, that the ability to appreciate danger varies with the age and mental capacity of the child, and that what is important is not whether conditions are common in character but whether their dangers are fully understood by children. In Courtell v. McEachen, 51 Cal.2d 448, 458 [334 P.2d 870], we held that a young trespassing child who was injured by a common condition, namely, fire or embers, might recover under the law applicable to trespassing children and that it was for the trier of fact to de.termine whether the child was injured by a risk not obvious to her. While a child is more likely to be aware of a dangerous condition which is common than of one which is unusual (see Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d at p. 111), it seems obvious that the common nature of a danger, such as that of drowning in a pool, should not bar relief if the child is too young to realize the danger. Even very young children cannot always be kept under the supervision of their parents, and the question whether a parent in a wrongful death case was guilty of contributory negligence in permitting his young child to play unattended near the defendant’s property will ordinarily be for the trier of fact.

A number of cases decided before Garcia v. Soogian, supra, 52 Cal.2d 107, and Courtell v. McEachen, supra, 51 Cal.2d 448, reasoned that the “attractive nuisance” doctrine does not apply unless the dangerous condition is uncommon and different from natural conditions which exist everywhere and that a body pf water, natural or artificial, is a common danger and therefore, as a matter of law, will not subject the possessor to liability for the drowning of a trespassing child, even if that child is too young to appreciate the danger. (See, e.g., Knight v. Kaiser Co., 48 Cal.2d 778, 782 [312 P.2d 1089]; Melendez v. City of Los Angeles, 8 Cal.2d 741, 745 [68 P.2d 971] ; Doyle v. Pacific Elec. Ry. Co., 6 Cal.2d 550, 552 [59 P.2d 93]; Peters v. Bowman, 115 Cal. 345, 350-351, 355-356 [47 P. 113, 598, 56 Am.St.Rep. 106]; Van Winkle v. City of King, 149 Cal.App.2d 500, 506 [308 P.2d 512]; Wilford v. Little, 144 Cal.App.2d 477, 480-482 [301 P.2d 282] ; Lopez v. Capitol Co., 141 Cal.App.2d 60, 65-67 [296 P.2d 63]; Lake v. Ferrer, 139 Cal.App.2d 114, 117-118 [293 P.2d 104]; Ward v. Oakley Co., 125 Cal.App.2d 840, 845 [271 P.2d 536]; King v. Simons Brick Co., 52 Cal.App.2d 586, 590 [126 P.2d 627] ; Beeson v. City of Los Angeles, 115 Cal.App. 122, 126-128 [300 P. 993]; Reardon v. Spring Valley Water Co., 68[*345] Cal.App. 13, 15-17 [228 P. 406].) This reasoning is inconsistent with the Restatement rule, and the cases cited above are disapproved insofar as their language or holdings are contrary to the views expressed herein.

The complaint alleges facts sufficient to meet the requirements enumerated in section 339 of the Restatement and thus states a cause of action. It is specifically alleged that defendants knew or should have known that children of tender years habitually entered the premises and played in and about the pool and that defendants knew or should have known that Boyd had frequently been brought to the vicinity of the pool by their daughter with the result that he had become attracted to it. The allegations describing the condition of defendants’ pool and the surrounding premises, including the absence of an adequate fence or other safeguards, state facts sufficient to permit a trier of fact to find that defendants should have realized that a serious danger of drowning was presented with respect to any unsupervised child of Boyd’s age who might come to the pool. Obviously it could be found that a child of 1% years would not understand the risk involved in being near a swimming pool, and it is alleged that Boyd did not know the danger. The last of the requirements set forth in section 339 was also sufficiently covered by the allegations that the utility to defendants of maintaining the condition was slight as compared with the risk to young children and that reasonable safeguards could have been provided at little cost.

The judgment is reversed.

Traynor, J., Peters, J., and White, J., concurred.

Dissent

SPENCE, J.

I dissent.

This is another of a series of recent decisions of this court dealing with the question of the nature of the duty owed by a landowner to a trespassing child with respect to the condition of the landowner’s premises. My views on this subject have been stated at length in my dissenting opinion in Reynolds v. Willson, 51 Cal.2d 94, 106 [331 P.2d 48], and in my concurring and dissenting opinions in Courtell v. McEachen, 51 Cal.2d 448, 460 [334 P.2d 870], and Garcia v. Soogian, 52 Cal.2d 107, 113 [333 P.2d 433]. It would serve no useful purpose to reiterate those views here. Suffice it to say that those views were based upon the salutary and reasonable rules established by a long line of “former cases,’’ which were followed by this court as recently as 1957 in[*346] Knight v. Kaiser, 48 Cal.2d 778 [312 P.2d 1089]. Those settled rules were thrown into a state of confusion by the above-cited more recent decisions of this court, which either ignored or attempted to distinguish the “former cases.” The majority opinion here, however, recognizes the inconsistency, for after citing some of the “former eases,” including Knight v. Kaiser, supra, 48 Cal.2d 778, it states that “the cases cited above are disapproved insofar as their language or holdings are contrary to the views expressed herein.” All the holdings of the cited “former cases” clearly support the judgment of the trial court and are contrary to the views expressed by the majority. I cannot agree that the “former cases” should be disapproved or that the judgment here should be reversed.

As stated in my dissenting opinions in the above-mentioned recent eases, the rules established by the “former cases” permitted the imposition of liability on the landowner in favor of the trespassing child in certain situations but not in a situation, such as the present one, in which the risk encountered by the trespassing child was one which was both “common and obvious.” These rules had the virtue of bringing some degree of certainty into the law and preventing the imposition of an unjust burden upon the landowner. I believe that this court should reaffirm those rules rather than disapprove them.

It now appears that with the majority’s disapproval here of Knight v. Kaiser, supra, 48 Cal.2d 778, liability may be imposed upon a landowner for the common and obvious risk to a trespassing child occasioned by the maintenance of a sandpile on the landowner’s property. On the other hand, it now appears that with the majority’s approval here of the decision in Garcia v. Soogian, supra, 52 Cal.2d 107, liability may not be imposed for the risk to a trespassing child occasioned by the maintenance of a pile of materials consisting of building panels containing windows. In my opinion, these declarations of approval and disapproval by the majority cannot be reconciled, and thus confusion still exists in this important field of the law.

I would adhere to the settled rules established by the “former cases” and would affirm the judgment.

Schauer, J., and McComb, J., concurred.