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Delaney v. Reynolds4/14/2005
first instance by leaving a loaded gun not equipped with a trigger lock accessible to Delaney, whom he knew or should have known to be suffering from substance abuse problems, depression, and thoughts of suicide. "The question whether the risk of injury was foreseeable is almost always one of fact." Moose v. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, 43 Mass. App. Ct. 420, 425 (1997). See Christopher v. Father's Huddle Café, Inc., 57 Mass. App. Ct. 217, 225-226 (2003), and cases therein cited.
Even were the jury to find that Delaney intended to commit suicide when she turned Reynolds's gun on herself with an intentional suicidal or self-injurious purpose, we think it should also be open to Delaney to show and the jury to find that the risk that she would handle or use Reynolds's gun in a manner so as to cause intentional injury to herself was foreseeable and that his failure to secure his gun was a proximate cause of her injury. See Sarna v. American Bosch Magneto Corp., 290 Mass. at 343-344 (jury could properly find causation where decedent's act of meddling with tank containing poisonous gas could be expected when defendant abandoned tank in location where people came to salvage metal). See also Roberts v. Southwick, 415 Mass. at 473-474; O'Hanley v. Ninety-Nine, Inc., 12 Mass. App. Ct. 64, 68-69 (1981). See generally Restatement (Second) of Torts § 435(1) & comment b. Compare Weeks v. Calnan, 39 Mass. App. Ct. 933, 934 (1995) (chain of causation broken because plaintiff's decision to move furniture in unsafe manner was unforeseeable).
Further, and based upon whatever evidence might be presented at trial, a jury might find that although Delaney did not intend to kill or injure herself, her use of the gun in the manner that she did was far more negligent than any act on Reynolds's part. See G. L. c. 231, § 85.
At trial on remand, these questions of fact and the present law regarding intentionally inflicted injuries could well lead a trial judge to decide to formulate special questions pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 49(b), 365 Mass. 813 (1974), for purposes of assistance on any postjudgment motions likely to be brought by either Delaney or Reynolds.
Judgment reversed.
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