Jones v. Secord

684 F.3d 1 (2012)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D owned a hunting camp. The camp includes a cabin that is normally locked when unoccupied - but a key is hidden on the property and family members know of its whereabouts. D kept a revolver hidden under the base of a water-heater platform inside the cabin. The ammunition for the handgun was stored in plain sight. D's grandson, Michael Woodbury, was among the family members who regularly visited the camp. When he was 17, Woodbury offended his grandfather. From that time forward, Woodbury was not welcome at the camp. Soon thereafter, Woodbury committed bank robbery and breaking and entering. By May of 2007, he was out of prison and had been helping his father build a house in Sebago, Maine. Woodbury had not spoken to D for approximately ten years. Woodbury showed up Ds principal but D received him coldly, and Woodbury departed minutes after his arrival. That was the last that the D saw Woodbury until after the murders. In June in 2007, D's son told D that he had accidentally left a mousetrap outside of the cabin. On June 28, D asked a friend, Sarah Barton, to go to the camp, and she went there that night. Nobody was around, but sheets were draped over the windows and a radio was playing. Barton peered through a window, spied what she thought was the wayward mousetrap, and departed. Barton returned to the camp the next day and turned off the radio, and retreated. The interior of the cabin appeared to be clean and in good order. On July 1, 2007, Barton told D about the sheets on the windows of the cabin. D went to the cabin on July 3. The cabin had been trashed, a rear window had been broken, and an unknown intruder had strewn garbage and debris throughout the cabin. They cleaned up the mess and left without calling the authorities. After arriving home, D learned that his estranged grandson had been accused of murdering three people during a robbery on July 2. It subsequently became clear that Woodbury had been the intruder who broke into the cabin, that he had found and taken the hidden revolver, and that he had used the revolver to commit the murders. P sued D alleging that D was negligent in failing both adequately to secure the revolver and promptly to report its theft. The court granted summary judgment in favor of D. It held that 'individuals ordinarily are not subjected to liability for the criminal acts of third parties.' P appealed.