## Facts

- A nine-year-old child was struck in the jaw and chin by an eleven-year-old boy swinging a golf club while the children played in the boy’s backyard.
- The boy picked up the golf club and swung it at a stone on the ground, causing the club to hit the plaintiff.
- The complaint alleged the boy was negligent for swinging without warning and while the plaintiff was in a position of danger.
- As to the boy’s father (the club’s owner), the complaint alleged he left the club lying on the ground in the backyard for some time.
- The complaint further alleged the father knew the club was in the yard, knew his children would play with it, and knew or should have known negligent use by children would cause injury, yet failed to remove the club or caution the boy.
- The father filed a demurrer challenging whether the pleaded facts stated a negligence claim against him.

## Issues

1. Whether the complaint stated a legally sufficient negligence cause of action against the father based on leaving a golf club accessible in a backyard where children played.
2. Whether a golf club is so obviously or intrinsically dangerous that leaving it where children may access it can constitute negligence without additional allegations of unreasonable risk.

## Decision

- The court sustained the father’s demurrer.
- The court held that a golf club is not so intrinsically dangerous that it is negligent to leave it lying on the ground in a yard.
- Accepting the pleaded allegations as true for demurrer purposes, the complaint nonetheless failed to state a cause of action against the father.

## Legal Principles

- On demurrer, the court assumes the pleaded facts are true but tests whether they are legally sufficient to support liability.
- Negligence requires conduct that creates an unreasonable, reasonably foreseeable risk of harm when assessed at the time of the conduct, not after the injury occurs.
- Merely leaving an ordinary object accessible to children does not, by itself, establish negligence unless the object or condition presents an obvious, intrinsic danger or otherwise creates an unreasonable risk requiring precaution.
- Foreseeability of some possible misuse is insufficient; the risk must be of a type and degree that a reasonable person would take precautions against.

## Conclusion

The court dismissed the negligence claim against the father at the pleading stage, ruling that leaving a golf club in a backyard where children might play did not, without more, allege an unreasonable risk sufficient to impose liability.


Lubitz v. Wells, 19 Conn. Supp. 322, 113 A.2d 147 (Conn. Super. Ct. 1955)