Hillis v. McCall

• Decision Date: 13 March 2020
• Docket Number: No. 18-1065,18-1065
• Citation: 602 S.W.3d 436
• Parties: Homer HILLIS, Petitioner, v. Henry MCCALL, Respondent
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

602 S.W.3d 436

Homer HILLIS, Petitioner,

v.Henry MCCALL, Respondent

No. 18-1065

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued January 9, 2020

OPINION DELIVERED: March 13, 2020

Rehearing Denied June 12, 2020

William David Farmer, Curney, Farmer, House, Osuna & Jackson, P.C., 411 Heimer Road, San Antonio TX 78232-4854, for Petitioner.

Cory Smith, Cory W. Smith, PLLC, 1017B E Riverside Dr., Austin TX 78704-1333, for Respondent.

Henry McCall, pro se.

Justice Lehrmann delivered the opinion of the Court.

The ferae naturae doctrine limits a landowner's liability for harm caused by indigenous wild animals on his property. In this premises-liability case arising out of a brown-recluse spider bite, we are asked how the doctrine affects the scope of the landowner's duty to his bitten invitee. The landowner argues that he owed no duty to the invitee because he was unaware of the presence of brown recluse spiders on his property and he neither attracted the offending spider to his property nor reduced it to his possession. Further, the invitee had actual knowledge of the presence of spiders on the property. The court of appeals held that the property owner failed to conclusively establish the absence of a duty and thus reversed the trial court's summary judgment in his favor. We agree with the landowner and reverse the court of appeals’ judgment.

I. Background

Homer Hillis owns a bed and breakfast (the B&B) and a neighboring cabin in Fredericksburg, Texas. He used the B&B as a second home until 2012, when he began renting it out, mainly on weekends. Hillis hired a housekeeper to prepare and clean the B&B before guests arrived. That process included utilizing "bug bombs" in the event the housekeeper noticed any pest problems. Thus, as Hillis described it, pest control at the B&B was conducted on an "[a]s needed" basis.

In early 2014, Hillis leased the neighboring cabin on the property to Henry McCall.¹ The cabin had no washer or dryer and had only a small refrigerator, so Hillis permitted McCall to use the laundry facilities and larger refrigerator in the B&B. McCall also offered to "open up" the B&B for guests and others needing access, such as electricians and other maintenance workers. According to McCall, Hillis typically called him several days before guests arrived and asked him to perform various tasks.²

On December 12, 2014, McCall accessed the B&B at Hillis's request to check the dishwasher and investigate whether the sink was leaking. While checking under the sink for a leak, McCall was bitten by a brown recluse spider, which is a venomous spider found in several states, including Texas.

Before he was bitten, McCall had observed spiders in both the cabin and the B&B on several occasions and had notified Hillis about the general presence of spiders in the B&B.³ According to Hillis, when McCall reported issues with insects or spiders, Hillis would pass along the information to the housekeeper who prepared the B&B for guests. Hillis also averred that customer reviews of the B&B had never complained of insects. Neither Hillis nor McCall had any personal knowledge about the presence of brown recluse spiders on Hillis's property specifically or in the surrounding area.⁴ However, Hillis explained that he had read reports on the internet that brown recluse spiders "are habitats [sic] of Texas for a long time, and I assumed they were around my property." Hillis had heard of people being bitten by brown recluses "elsewhere," but not on his property.

McCall sued Hillis for negligence under a premises-liability theory, alleging that the presence of brown recluse spiders on Hillis's property constituted an unreasonably dangerous condition, that Hillis knew or should have known of the condition, that Hillis owed McCall a duty to adequately warn him of the condition or make the property safe, that Hillis breached that duty, and that McCall suffered damages as a result. Hillis filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that, under the longstanding doctrine of ferae naturae , he owed no duty to McCall with respect to indigenous wild animals that Hillis had neither introduced to nor harbored on the property. The trial court granted the motion, and McCall appealed.

The court of appeals reversed. 562 S.W.3d 98, 106 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2018). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to McCall, the court concluded that "McCall was bitten by a spider in an artificial structure and Hillis knew or should have known of an unreasonable risk of harm posed by the spiders inside the B&B." Id. Accordingly, the court held that Hillis had failed to establish as a matter of law the absence of a duty to warn or make safe under the doctrine of ferae naturae. Id.

II. Discussion

A. Standard of Review

A trial court's order granting summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Ass'n , 556 S.W.3d 274, 278 (Tex. 2018). A party moving for traditional summary judgment has the burden to prove that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. ConocoPhillips Co. v. Koopmann , 547 S.W.3d 858, 865 (Tex. 2018) ; see also TEX. R. CIV. P. 166a(c). "When reviewing a summary judgment, we take as true all evidence favorable to the nonmovant, and we indulge every reasonable inference and resolve any doubts in the nonmovant's favor." Valence Operating Co. v. Dorsett , 164 S.W.3d 656, 661 (Tex. 2005) (citations omitted).

B. Premises Liability and Ferae Naturae

"A claim against a property owner for injury caused by a condition of real property generally sounds in premises liability." Occidental Chem. Corp. v. Jenkins , 478 S.W.3d 640, 642 (Tex. 2016). When the claim is based on the property owner's negligence, the threshold question is whether the owner owed a duty to the injured person. See Brookshire Grocery Co. v. Goss , 262 S.W.3d 793, 794 (Tex. 2008). "The existence of a duty is a question of law for the court to decide from the facts surrounding the occurrence" at issue. Walker v. Harris , 924 S.W.2d 375, 377 (Tex. 1996).⁵ Further, the duties owed by a landowner in a premises-liability case "depend upon the role of the person injured on his premises." Rosas v. Buddies Food Store , 518 S.W.2d 534, 535 (Tex. 1975). When the injured person qualifies as an invitee,⁶ as McCall did,⁷ then as a general rule the landowner owes a "duty to make safe or warn against any concealed, unreasonably dangerous conditions of which the landowner is, or reasonably should be, aware but the invitee is not." Austin v. Kroger Tex., L.P. , 465 S.W.3d 193, 203 (Tex. 2015) ; see also United Scaffolding, Inc. v. Levine , 537 S.W.3d 463, 471 (Tex. 2017) (landowner's duty to an invitee is to "use ordinary care to reduce or eliminate an unreasonable risk of harm created by a premises condition which the owner ... knows about or in the exercise of ordinary care should know about" (citation omitted)). In line with that rule, the duty does not extend to warning the invitee of hazards that are open and obvious. Austin , 465 S.W.3d at 204.

Notwithstanding the general rule regarding the duty a premises owner owes to invitees, we have approached the scope of the duty differently in some circumstances. For example, we have held that a premises owner generally has no duty to protect invitees from the criminal acts of third parties on the owner's property, but we recognize an exception "when the owner knows or has reason to know of a risk of harm to invitees that is unreasonable and foreseeable." Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith , 307 S.W.3d 762, 767 (Tex. 2010) ; see also Austin , 465 S.W.3d at 206 (characterizing the duty recognized in Del Lago as an exception to the general rule that a landowner owes no duty to warn an invitee with respect to unreasonably dangerous conditions that are obvious or known to the invitee). Pertinent to this case, we have also recognized that, with certain exceptions, a premises owner generally owes no duty to protect invitees from wild animals on the owner's property. Union Pac. R.R. Co. v. Nami , 498 S.W.3d 890, 896–97 (Tex. 2016). Under this longstanding doctrine of ferae naturae , such a duty does not exist "unless the landowner actually reduced indigenous wild animals to [his] possession or control," "introduced nonindigenous animals into the area," or affirmatively "attract[ed] the animals to the property." Id. at 897 (citations omitted); see also Nicholson v. Smith , 986 S.W.2d 54, 63 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1999, no pet.).

The reasoning underlying the doctrine is that wild animals "exist throughout nature" and are "generally not predictable or controllable." Nami , 498 S.W.3d at 897 (quoting 4 AM JUR. 2d, Animals § 62 (2007) ).⁸ In turn, the mere fact that an indigenous wild animal has crossed a landowner's property line does not make the landowner better able to protect an invitee than the invitee is to protect himself. Id. ; see also Nicholson , 986 S.W.2d at 63 ("Under ordinary circumstances, Texas landowners do not have a duty to warn their guests about the presence and behavior patterns of every species of indigenous wild animals and plants which pose a potential threat to a person's safety...."). The risk and foreseeability of injury do not outweigh the severe burden and potential consequences of imposing a general duty on a landowner with respect to "indigenous wild animals in their natural habitat, in the normal course of their existence." Nicholson , 986 S.W.2d at 62 ; see also Brantley v. Oak Grove Power Co. , No. 10-12-00135-CV, 2012 WL 5974032, at *3 (Tex. App.—Waco Nov. 29, 2012, no pet.) (mem. op.) (holding that a landowner owed no duty to a construction worker who was bitten by a spider at a construction site, in part because the spider was "in its natural habitat in the normal course of its existence" and the employer had engaged in no affirmative or negligent acts to draw spiders to the area).

However, courts applying the ferae naturae doctrine have long recognized an additional exception...