Katko v. Briney

May 13, 2007 8:30 PM

My girlfriend and I were talking about the Katko v. Briney case from our first year torts class, and were trying to recall the specifics of the events after the initial decision was handed down.

In Katko v. Briney, the Supreme Court of Iowa held that a homeowner was liable for battery when the homeowner set a spring gun trap to catch a burglar. The burglar, Katko was shot and hurt and sued the landowner, Briney.

In the judgment for Katko, he was awarded $30,000. What we can't remember, is what happened after the fact. We seem to recall that there was some anecdote about the case's aftermath, but can't remember what it was. Any help would be appreciated.

posted by darainwa to Law & Government (3 answers total)

Best answer: Katko had to sell some of his land to raise money for the judgment. One of his neighbors bought it at auction (for much less than $30,000) and later sold it for a profit. For some reason on which I am not entirely clear, Katko and Briney ended up getting together as plaintiffs to sue the neighbor. For more details, see the Google Book Search results for "80 acres Katko."
posted by Partial Law at 9:09 PM on May 13, 2007

Such an interesting outcome, I've added it to the Wikipedia article.
posted by dhartung at 1:10 AM on May 14, 2007

Response by poster: Many thanks Partial Law. That's exactly what we were looking for. (Althought I think it was Katko that got shot and Briney that sold the land.)
posted by darainwa at 4:59 PM on May 14, 2007