Magerowski v. Standard Oil Company
Citation | 274 F. Supp. 246 |
Decision Date | 26 September 1967 |
Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 5453. |
Parties | Ingeborg MAGEROWSKI, Administratrix of the Estate of Nicholas Magerowski, Deceased, Plaintiff, v. STANDARD OIL COMPANY, a Division of American Oil Company, a foreign corporation, Defendant. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan |
Marcus, McCroskey, Libner, Reamon, Williams & Dilley, Muskegon, Mich., for plaintiff, Vernon D. Kortering, Muskegon, Mich., of counsel.
Cholette, Perkins & Buchanan, Grand Rapids, Mich., for defendant, Don V. Souter, Grand Rapids, Mich., of counsel.
In a wrongful death action, defendant Standard Oil Division of American Oil Company moves for dismissal, or in the alternative summary judgment against plaintiff Ingeborg Magerowski, adminisstratrix of the estate of Nicholas Magerowski, on the ground that plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
The facts can be summarized as follows: Around October 17, 1963, plaintiff's decedent, Nicholas Magerowski, while attempting to fish from defendant's dock fell and drowned. Nicholas was nine years old at the time of his death. Defendant claims that Nicholas was a trespasser, present on its property without either its express or implied consent.
Count I of plaintiff's complaint alleges negligence, and Count II asserts gross negligence.
Michigan Statutes Annotated 13.1485, Comp.Laws 1948, § 300.201, provides:
"No cause of action shall arise for injuries to any person who is on the lands of another without paying to such other person a valuable consideration for the purpose of fishing, hunting, trapping, camping, hiking, sightseeing, or other similar outdoor recreational use, with or without permission, against the owner, tenant or lessee of said premises unless the injuries were caused by the gross negligence or wilful and wanton misconduct of the owner, tenant or lessee."
In 1965, the Michigan Supreme Court in Heider v. Michigan Sugar Co., 375 Mich. 490, 134 N.W.2d 637 (1965), cert. den. 383 U.S. 905, 86 S.Ct. 892, 15 L.Ed.2d 661 (1966), held that the above statute is applicable to infants. Accordingly, Count I of plaintiff's complaint must be dismissed.
Count II alleges substantially that defendant was guilty of willful and reckless misconduct in that, knowing infants used its facilities, defendant failed to guard against their entry onto its property.
Section 339, Restatement of Torts, 2d, provides:
Defendant asserts that it can be stated as an almost universal rule that the doctrine of attractive nuisance is not applicable to ponds, lakes, and reservoirs, unless they contain a latent danger or condition.
A landowner in Michigan is not per se immune from liability to a child injured by an open and natural condition.
In Lyshak v. City of Detroit, 351 Mich. 230, 88 N.W.2d 596 (1958), Justice Talbot Smith in a landmark opinion, set forth the general principles which Michigan courts must follow in analyzing the rights and duties of landowners to trespassing children. Although not specifically deciding the issue, Justice Smith indicated...
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Taylor v. Mathews
...See Gross Negligence in Michigan--How Gross Is it?, 16 Wayne L.Rev. 457, 472 (1970). The other case, Magerowski v. Standard Oil Company, 274 F.Supp. 246, 247, 248 (W.D.Mich., 1967), was a wrongful-death action to recover for the death of a nine-year-old boy who drowned while fishing from de......
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Kesner v. Trenton
...the bathing facilities.' Id. at 751. Compare, Garfield v. United States, 297 F.Supp. 891 (W.D.Wis.1969); see Magerowski v. Standard Oil Co., 274 F.Supp. 246 (W.D.Mich.S.D.1967) and Heider v. Michigan Sugar Co., 375 Mich. 490, 134 N.W.2d 637, cert. granted 383 U.S. 905, 86 S.Ct. 892, 15 L.Ed......
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In re Air Crash at Detroit Metro. Airport
...reasonable person that the result of a failure to use ordinary care would likely prove disastrous." Id. (citing Magerowski v. Standard Oil Co., 274 F.Supp. 246 (W.D.Mich. 1967) and Papajesk v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co., 14 Mich.App. 550, 166 N.W.2d 46 (1968) (leave to appeal Referring to Nor......
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Burnett v. City of Adrian
...that plaintiffs must satisfy to state a cause of action and survive a motion for summary judgment. See, e.g., Magerowski v. Standard Oil Co., 274 F.Supp. 246 (W.D.Mich., 1967); Taylor v. Mathews, 40 Mich.App. 74, 198 N.W.2d 843 (1972); Lucchesi v. Kent County Road Comm., 109 Mich.App. 254, ......