## Facts

- Bertha Briney owned an 80-acre tract with an old farmhouse that had been unoccupied for about ten years and had suffered repeated trespasses, theft, and vandalism.
- The Brineys boarded up doors and windows and posted “No Trespassing” signs, including one near the house.
- To deter intruders, Edward Briney installed a concealed spring-gun device: a 20-gauge shotgun rigged to fire when a bedroom door was opened; it was adjusted to shoot toward an intruder’s legs.
- The device was not visible from outside the room, and no specific warning indicated a gun or trap.
- Marvin Katko, having previously broken in and taken bottles and jars, returned with Marvin McDonough intending to take more.
- When Katko opened the bedroom door, the gun discharged at close range into his right leg, causing severe injury and hospitalization for about 40 days.
- A jury awarded Katko $20,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages; the trial court denied post-trial defense motions and entered judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a landowner may protect personal property in an unoccupied, boarded-up building by setting a spring gun capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.
2. Whether punitive damages may be awarded to an injured plaintiff who was a criminal trespasser at the time of injury.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for Katko, including actual and punitive damages.
- The court held landowners may not use spring guns or similar devices capable of causing death or serious injury to protect unoccupied property where there is no threat to human safety.
- The court upheld punitive damages based on the jury’s finding that setting the trap was sufficiently willful, wanton, or malicious.

## Legal Principles

- Human safety is valued more highly than property; force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm is not privileged to protect land or chattels absent a concurrent threat to personal safety that would justify self-defense.
- A landowner has a duty not to willfully or intentionally inflict great bodily injury on trespassers through concealed mechanical devices.
- Mechanical traps are especially disfavored because they apply severe force automatically, without contemporaneous human judgment about necessity or proportionality.
- A trespasser’s wrongful conduct does not authorize a landowner to employ deadly or seriously injurious force when only property is at risk.
- Punitive damages may be imposed when the defendant’s conduct reflects willful or wanton disregard for the safety of others, even if the injured party was trespassing.

## Conclusion

The court held that a landowner cannot defend unoccupied property by installing a concealed spring-gun trap capable of causing death or serious injury; because the device posed grave danger without any threat to human safety, liability and punitive damages were properly imposed for the severe injuries inflicted on the trespasser.


Katko v. Briney, 183 N.W.2d 657 (Iowa 1971)