Bennett v. Stanley
Supreme Court of Ohio
748 N.E.2d 41 (2001)
Five-year-old Bennett (plaintiff) drowned after falling into a neglected, unfenced, pond-like swimming pool on the property of his neighbor, Stanley (defendant), while looking for frogs; the pool had no ladders, no fence, and no warning signs, and the property line was broken by an eight-foot gap that let children pass through. Stanley knew children lived next door and had seen them playing unsupervised nearby. Bennett's family sued Stanley for negligence, and the trial court granted Stanley summary judgment, applying the traditional trespasser rule that a landowner need only refrain from willful or wanton misconduct toward trespassers.
Whether a landowner owes a higher duty of reasonable care, rather than merely a duty to avoid willful misconduct, to a child trespasser injured by a dangerous artificial condition on the land.