Backfiring Booby Trap

When Marvin Katko, 30, broke into an abandoned farmhouse near Oskaloosa, Iowa, a shotgun cut loose with a load of buckshot, hitting him in the right ankle. The gun had been tied to a bed, and the trigger was wired to go off when the bedroom door was opened. Katko was arrested, for petty larceny, fined $50 and put on six months' probation. Justice had apparently been done, or so everyone thought--except Marvin Katko.

The injured prowler sued the farm owners, Edward Briney and his wife, for $60,000; a jury awarded him half his claim. lowans were incredulous, but last week the state's supreme court upheld the verdict. "The primary issue," said the court in an 8-to-l decision, "is whether an owner may protect personal property in a boarded-up farmhouse by a spring gun capable of inflicting death or serious injury." It is an accepted rule that deadly force may not generally be used to protect property unless it is also necessary for self-defense. Since no one was there when Katko broke in, no one's personal safety was threatened. The prowler was therefore entitled to collect for the misuse of the overpowerful booby trap.

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