Note 140 — Chapter II · NEGLIGENT INTERFERENCE (continued 5)

See Latham v. Johnson, [1913] 1 K. B. 398. In that case Hamilton, L. J., said (pp. 415–416): “Two other terms must be alluded to—a ‘trap’ and ‘attraction’ or ‘allurement.’ A trap is a figure of speech, not a formula. It involves the idea of concealment and surprise, of an appearance of safety under circumstances cloaking a reality of danger. Owners and occupiers alike expose licensees and visitors to traps on their premises at their peril, but a trap is a relative term. In the case of an infant, there are moral as well as physical traps. There may accordingly be a duty towards infants not merely not to dig pitfalls for them, but not to lead them into temptation. ‘Allurements,’ too, is a vague word. It may refer only to the circumstances under which the injured child has entered the close. Here it is hard to see how infantile temptations can give rights, however much they may excuse peccadilloes. A child will be a trespasser still, if he goes on private ground without leave or right, however natural it may have been for him to do so. On the other hand, the allurement may arise after he has entered with leave or as of right. Then the presence in a frequented place of some object of attraction, tempting him to meddle where he ought to abstain, may well constitute a trap, and in the case of a child too young to be capable of contributory negligence it may impose full liability on the owner or occupier, if he ought, as a reasonable man, to have anticipated the presence of the child and the attractiveness and peril of the object.”

“Finally, what objects which attract infants to their hurt are traps even to them? Not all objects with which children hurt themselves simpliciter. A child can get into mischief and hurt itself with anything if it is young enough. In some cases the answer may rest with the jury, but it must be matter of law to say whether a given object can be a trap in the double sense of being fascinating and fatal. No strict answer has been, or perhaps ever will be, given to the question, but I am convinced that a heap of paving stone in broad daylight in a private close cannot so combine the properties of temptation and retribution as to be properly called a trap.”