Thompson v. Illinois Central R.

Citations

• 105 Miss. 636
• 63 So. 185

Syllabus

<p>1. Negligence. Dangerous condition of premises. Ponds. Demurrer.</p> <p>In a suit for damages by a parent against a railroad company for the death of a nine-year-old child, who was drowned, a demurrer was properly sustained to a declaration which alleged that the defendant railroad company in the conduct of its business purchased one hundred acres of woodland a half mile from the residential portion of a town, and by building a dam across the natural drainage of this land impounded the water therein, forming thereby a lake, that the boy who was drowned with other boys was in the habit of wading in this pond, which fact was known to the agents of-the railroad company or would have been known, had the company placed a watchman over its unenclosed lake, that the boy waded about two hundred and fifty feet in the water and stepped into a “deep hole” in the original drainage ditch or branch and was drowned.</p> <p>2. Same.</p> <p>In such casé the pond or lake although artificially created, was in nowise different from natural ponds and streams which exist everywhere and which involves the same dangers and present the same appearance and the same attractions to children and under such circumstances no negligence can be imputed to the railroad in failing to fence the pond or to station a watchman to guard it.</p>