Topical Guide 809
Mark Dorset
Law and Laws: Attractive Nuisance Doctrine
At Home with the Glynns, Chapter 9:
The big house itself was always referred to, during my childhood, as “the Nevsky mansion,” though it was just an abandoned shell, hollow and mysterious, a dangerous place to go according to Babbington’s mothers, but a powerfully alluring place for Babbington’s children, the sort of place that in legal parlance is “an attractive nuisance,” which appellation must surely have arisen from a knowing recollection of childhood.
Wikipedia, “Attractive nuisance doctrine”:
The attractive nuisance doctrine applies to the law of torts in some jurisdictions. It states that a landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by an object on the land that is likely to attract children. The doctrine is designed to protect children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object, by imposing a liability on the landowner. The doctrine has been applied to hold landowners liable for injuries caused by abandoned cars, piles of lumber or sand, trampolines, and swimming pools. However, it can be applied to virtually anything on the property. […]
The attractive nuisance doctrine emerged from case law in England, starting with Lynch v. Nurdin in 1841. In that case, an opinion by Lord Chief Justice Thomas Denman held that the owner of a cart left unattended on the street could be held liable for injuries to a child who climbed onto the cart and fell. The doctrine was first applied in the United States in Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stout, an 1873 case from Nebraska in which a railroad company was held liable for injuries to a child who climbed onto an unsecured railway turntable. The term “attractive nuisance” was first used in 1875 in Keffe v. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co., a Minnesota case.
See also:
Law and Laws TG 754
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