Attractive Nuisance Case Study

Our clients, the parents of their deceased son Opie Taylor, who was the age of ten years old. Every year the local Cub Scout troop, that Opie Taylor was apart off, would spend Thanksgiving at Floyd Lawson home that included fifteen acres of surrounding land. There is a ditch surrounding the premises which at the time of incident was filled with water that was from the continuous rain of that day. Opie Taylor on this day had slid down the embankment on a flattened cardboard into the water and never resurface. He was later found deceased from drowning in the ditch.
QUESTION PRESENTED Can a landowner be held liable under the "attractive nuisance" doctrine for an accidental death that occurs on the premises?
BRIEF ANSWER No, the child or any of the children that were present was not trespassing and the child was of age to understand danger. The landowner did have a duty to care for invited minors and to refrain from willfully and wantonly injuring him which he obliged. The embankment was in plain view and not hidden from invitee.
DISCUSSION
While the landowner has the right to make sure that his land is safe from natural and manmade hazards on his land. History has found that as safe as
In the case of Goodwin v. Jackson, 484 So. 2d 1041, 1046 (Miss. 1986), though this was an infant who had died, in a trailer park swimming pool, there was a fence around it to keep unwanted visitors from entering but at the time the gate door was open. The infant who died wondered out of her home and towards the swimming pool. In this case the infant died from drowning and no one was watching him. Though the parents sued in court; the court ruled in favor of the defendant, because even with the safety precautions accidents can still