MacVane v. S.D. Warren Company, Limited Liability Company
United States District Court for the District of Maine
641 F. Supp. 2d 54 (2009)
S.D. Warren Co. (defendant), owner of the Eel Weir Dam - surrounded by fencing, warning signs, and security patrols but still identified by a risk-consulting report as an ongoing trespassing hazard due to high-voltage wires - had 13-year-old Mackenzie MacVane climb through a fence hole, scale another fence to reach a rooftop, and jump onto a catwalk near 11,000-volt wires, where he backed into a wire, was electrocuted, and killed. His parents (plaintiffs) sued, arguing Maine's recreational-use statute (which generally eliminates landowner duty to recreational users) should not apply because the dam posed an unreasonable risk of death to children, or alternatively that S.D. Warren's conduct was willful; S.D. Warren moved for summary judgment.
Whether a landowner's liability for an attractive nuisance may be limited by statute.