Bonney v. Canadian National Railway Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
800 F.2d 274 (1st Cir. 1986)
A 15-year-old trespasser fell off a railway bridge with no guardrails into the river below while riding his bicycle across it at night, against a companion's warning; police officer Rodney Bonney drowned trying to save him. The railway had known for decades that locals used the unguarded bridge as a shortcut and had posted No Trespassing signs that vandals removed. Bonney's widow (plaintiff) sued Canadian National Railway (defendant) under the rescue doctrine; the trial court found the railway's failure to safeguard the bridge wanton enough to create a duty to the trespassing teen, and thus liability to Bonney as his rescuer, and the railway appealed.
Whether a landowner can be liable to a rescuer under the rescue doctrine when the landowner did not violate any duty of care owed to the person being rescued.