## Facts

- Two minor children, Shaun and Alex O’Guin, entered a Bingham County landfill on a day it was closed and unattended.
- The children accessed the area by passing through an unlocked gate behind a schoolyard, crossing an adjacent private field, and reaching an unobstructed boundary with the landfill.
- While the children were playing at the landfill, a pit wall collapsed and crushed them, causing their deaths.
- The parents alleged the County failed to comply with statutory and regulatory landfill access-control duties requiring fencing or other barriers to prevent unauthorized entry when the facility was closed or unattended.
- The parents pursued a wrongful death action, including a negligence per se theory based on alleged violations of landfill statutes and regulations.

## Issues

1. Whether landfill statutes and implementing regulations clearly defined a standard of conduct whose violation could constitute negligence per se.
2. Whether a statutory standard of care, if applicable, supersedes the limited common-law duty owed to trespassers.
3. Whether genuine disputes of material fact existed on proximate cause sufficient to preclude summary judgment.

## Decision

- The Idaho Supreme Court reversed summary judgment for the County and remanded.
- The Court held the landfill access-control statutes and regulations could establish a negligence per se standard of conduct.
- The Court held that when a statute or regulation supplies a clear duty and standard of care, that statutory standard governs and is not reduced by the common-law trespasser rule.
- The Court held disputed fact questions existed as to whether the alleged access-control violations were a proximate cause of the children’s deaths, making summary judgment improper.

## Legal Principles

- A prima facie negligence per se claim requires: (1) a statute or regulation clearly defining required conduct; (2) intent to prevent the type of harm that occurred; (3) protection of a class that includes the plaintiff; and (4) proximate causation.
- Safety statutes and administrative regulations may define the operative standard of care for negligence per se.
- When a statutory duty clearly defines required conduct, it can displace a more limited common-law duty (including the willful-or-wanton standard traditionally applied to trespassers).
- Summary judgment is inappropriate where reasonable factfinders could differ on whether the statutory violation caused the injury.

## Conclusion

The court held that landfill access-control requirements could support negligence per se, that the statutory standard governed even if the children were trespassers, and that disputed causation facts required reversal and remand for further proceedings.


O’Guin v. Bingham County, 122 P.3d 308 (Idaho 2005)