## Facts

- Pecan Shoppe of Springfield, Missouri, Inc. operated a highway gas station and restaurant.
- Tri-State Motor Transit Co. was an interstate common carrier authorized to transport explosives, and regularly hauled dangerous commodities.
- During a labor strike against Tri-State in September 1970, violent acts were directed at Tri-State’s trucks and operations.
- On September 30, 1970, a nonstriking Tri-State driver hauled a truckload of dynamite on a Missouri highway.
- A striking employee fired a rifle at the truck; the bullet struck and detonated the dynamite.
- The explosion destroyed the truck, killed the driver, and caused extensive damage to nearby property, including Pecan Shoppe’s premises.
- Pecan Shoppe sued Tri-State seeking recovery on a strict-liability theory, alleging that transporting explosives on public highways was an abnormally dangerous activity (and/or a public nuisance) imposing liability without proof of negligence.
- The trial court refused to direct a verdict for Pecan Shoppe on strict liability, submitted the case under fault-based instructions, and the jury returned a verdict for Tri-State.

## Issues

1. Whether regulated common-carrier transportation of dynamite on a public highway is an abnormally dangerous activity (or public nuisance) subjecting the carrier to strict liability for resulting property damage.
2. Whether strict liability is barred or limited where the explosion is triggered by an intentional criminal act (a rifle shot) rather than an accident inherent in transporting explosives.
3. Whether the trial court erred by denying a directed verdict on strict liability and refusing plaintiff’s strict-liability jury instructions.

## Decision

- The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the defense judgment for Tri-State.
- The court held strict liability did not apply on these facts; lawful, regulated highway transport of a single load of dynamite by an authorized common carrier was not treated as a public nuisance or otherwise subject to automatic strict liability.
- Even assuming strict-liability doctrine could apply to some explosives cases, the harm here resulted from a deliberate shooting, which the court treated as outside the abnormal risk defining any strict-liability rule for explosives transport.
- Because strict liability was not a correct theory on this record, the trial court properly denied a directed verdict and properly refused plaintiff’s proposed strict-liability instructions.

## Legal Principles

- Strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities is limited to harm that results from the characteristic hazard (the “abnormal risk”) that makes the activity abnormally dangerous; it does not extend to all harms merely because explosives are involved.
- Missouri strict-liability precedents for explosives focused on storage or maintenance of explosives in populated areas as a continuing danger; those authorities did not control regulated, transient transportation by a licensed common carrier.
- In assessing whether an activity is abnormally dangerous, relevant considerations include the degree of risk and magnitude of harm, whether reasonable care can reduce the risk, whether the activity is a matter of common usage, whether it is appropriate to the location, and its social utility.
- An independent, intentional criminal act that triggers the harm may place the resulting damage outside the strict-liability scope-of-risk analysis, defeating strict liability against the actor conducting the dangerous activity.

## Conclusion

The court refused to impose strict liability on an authorized carrier for property damage caused when a truckload of dynamite detonated after being intentionally shot during a strike, holding that regulated transportation of explosives was not treated as a public nuisance or per se abnormally dangerous activity and that the deliberate attack fell outside the abnormal risk for strict-liability purposes.


Pecan Shoppe of Springfield, Missouri, Inc. v. Tri-State Motor Transit Co., 573 S.W.2d 431 (Mo. Ct. App. 1978)