O'guin v. Bingham County
122 P.3d 308 (Idaho 2005)
Nature Of The Case
This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.
Facts
Shaun and Alex O'Guin were killed while playing at the D landfill. A section of the pit wall collapsed and crushed the children. The children had been eating lunch at Ridgecrest Elementary School as part of a summer lunch program. As they started walking home, the children went through an unlocked gate at the back of the schoolyard and through a privately owned empty field. The landfill was closed on the day the children were killed, and no landfill employees were present on the site. P sued alleging the landfill was an attractive nuisance and that D breached certain legal duties to control access to the landfill. D filed a motion for summary judgment. The attractive nuisance claim was dismissed for a failure to assert facts that prove an essential element of the claim. D requested permission to appeal, and the court sua sponte reconsidered its decision and granted summary judgment to D. The case was appealed. On remand, D renewed its motion for summary judgment on the negligence per se claim and the district court granted the motion. P appealed. The parties disagree on how the common law duty of a landowner to a trespasser affects the statutory duty of a landfill owner. Ps argue that once the district court determined the regulations established a duty and D had breached that duty, there was no need to apply the common law willful or wanton standard. D argues that the children were trespassers, even if the requirements of negligence per se are met, Ps must still prove that D's conduct was willful or wanton.
Issues
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Holding & Decision
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Legal Analysis
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