Katko v. Briney

Facts

In 1957 Bertha L. Briney inherited her parents' farm land, including an old farm house in Mahaska County. No one lived in it after that. From 1957 to 1967, intruders repeatedly broke in, took some household items and broke windows. The Brineys boarded up the windows and doors and posted no trespass signs. On June 11, 1967, they set a shotgun trap in the north bedroom: Edward Briney's 20-gauge shotgun, secured to an iron bed and wired to fire at the door when it opened. Briney first aimed it at an intruder's stomach but, at his wife's suggestion, lowered it to the legs. He admitted he set the gun “because I was mad and tired of being tormented” but said he did not intend to injure anyone. He gave no reason for using a loaded shell aimed at a person already inside. The gun could not be seen from outside, and no warning was posted. The Brineys' own home was several miles away. Katko considered the house abandoned. He and his companion, Marvin McDonough, had already taken old bottles and fruit jars from it. On the night of July 16, 1967, they returned, entering through a porch window. As Katko started to open the bedroom door, the gun fired, blowing away much of his right leg above the ankle. He spent 40 days in the hospital and was left with a permanently deformed, shortened leg. He pleaded guilty to larceny in the nighttime of property worth less than $20.

Issues

1. May an owner protect personal property in an unoccupied, boarded-up farm house against trespassers and thieves with a spring gun capable of inflicting death or serious injury?
2. Could the Brineys attack the $10,000 punitive damages award on appeal when they never challenged it in the trial court?

Holding

The trial court's instructions stated the law correctly: an owner may not protect property against a trespasser or thief with a spring gun likely to kill or seriously injure, unless the intruder is committing a felony of violence or a felony punishable by death, or is endangering human life; and breaking and entering is not a felony of violence. The Brineys' objections had no merit. Because they never challenged punitive damages in the trial court, the $10,000 award was not open to review.