“The principle underlying the cases above cited recognizes the right of the owner of real property to the exclusive use and enjoyment of the same without liability to others for injuries occasioned by its unsafe condition, where the person receiving the injury was not in or near the place of danger by lawful right; and where such owner assumed no responsibility for his safety by inviting him there, without giving him notice of the existence or imminence of the peril to be avoided.”
In the case from which we have quoted, the intestate of the plaintiff was at the defendant’s station house, not on any business with it, but merely to pass away his time, when, by a severe and sudden blast of wind, a portion of the roof of the station house was blown off the building and against the intestate, with such force as to kill him. The case, in its circumstances, was not unlike the one before us. Nicholson v. Erie R. W. Co., 41 N. Y. 525; Murray v. McLean, 57 Ill. 378; Durham v. Musselman, 2 Blackf. 96 (18 Am. Dec. 133).
In the case of Sweeny v. Old Colony, &c. R. R. Co., 10 Allen, 368, the Court say:—
“A licensee, who enters on premises by permission only, without any enticement, allurement, or inducement being held out to him by the owner or occupant, cannot recover damages for injuries caused by obstructions or pitfalls. He goes there at his own risk, and enjoys the license subject to its concomitant perils.” Carleton v. Franconia Iron and Steel Co., 99 Mass. 216; Harris v. Stevens, 31 Vt. 79, 90; Wood v. Leadbitter, 13 M. & W. 838.
The evidence in this case brings it, we think, within the principles settled by the above cases.
The appellant contends that the evidence shows that the appellee was guilty of gross negligence in not repairing its freight house, and that such negligence renders it liable, though he entered upon its premises without invitation or license, as a mere intruder, and was, while such intruder, injured; and, in support of this proposition, we are referred to the following cases: Lafayette, &c. R. R. Co. v. Adams, 26 Ind. 76; Indianapolis, &c. R. R. Co. v. McClure, 26 Ind. 370; Gray v. Harris, 107 Mass. 492; Isabel v. Hannibal, &c. R. R. Co., 60 Mo. 475.
In the first of the above cases, the Court held that, where the negligence of the company was so gross as to imply a disregard of consequences or a willingness to inflict the injury, it was liable, though the party injured was not free from fault. In the second case, it was held that a railroad company, not required to fence its road, would not be liable for animals killed on its road, unless guilty of gross negligence. The phrase “gross negligence,” as used in these cases, means something more than the mere omission of duty; it meant, as shown by the evidence in the cases, reckless and aggressive conduct on the part of the company’s servants. “Something more than negligence, however gross, must be shown, to enable a party to recover for an injury, when he has been guilty of contributory negligence.” The Pennsylvania Co. v. Sinclair, 62 Ind. 301. There was, in the cases referred to in 26 Ind., something more than negligence. As in the case of The Indianapolis, &c. R. W. Co. v. McBrown, 46 Ind. 229, where the animal was driven through a deep cut, eighty rods long, into and upon a trestle work of the company, there was aggressive malfeasance. In the Massachusetts case, the Court held that a party building a dam across a stream must provide against unusual floods. We do not think these cases applicable to the one before us.
There could be no negligence on the part of the appellee, of which the appellant can be heard to complain, unless at the time he received the injury, the appellee was under some obligation or duty to him to repair its freight house. “Actionable negligence exists only where the one whose act causes or occasions the injury owes to the injured person a duty, created either by contract or by operation of law, which he has failed to discharge.” Pittsburgh, &c. R. W. Co. v. Bingham, supra; Burdeck v. Cheadle, 26 Ohio St. 393; Town of Salem v. Goller, 76 Ind. 291. We have shown that the appellee owed the appellant no such duty.
The judgment below should be affirmed.
Per Curiam. It is ordered, upon the foregoing opinion, that the judgment below be affirmed, at the costs of the appellant.[[134]]