Brittain v. Booth

Summary

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed a $5,100 judgment for a sixteen-year-old laborer injured when an excavation caved in, entered on a jury verdict assessing his damages at $10,000 but apportioning negligence 49 percent to him and 51 percent to his co-employee supervisor. The court held that assumption of risk, long merged with contributory negligence in Wyoming, is a basis for apportionment of fault under the comparative negligence statute rather than an absolute defense; that substantial evidence, including the 11-foot-deep unsloped and unshored excavation in sandy or shaley soil, supported the jury's finding that a reasonable person of ordinary prudence would not have entered it; and that the damages award was inviolate absent proof it shocked the judicial conscience. Justice Rose, joined by Justice McClintock, dissented, concluding that no substantial evidence showed the inexperienced sixteen-year-old knew or should have appreciated the danger, and would have awarded him the full damages found by the jury.