Callahan

In some way on April 14, 1956, Joe Steven Palm, then seven years old, fell off a roof deck at the rear of the second floor Buttrey apartments in Glasgow, Montana. (The first floor of the building was occupied by a store.) Joe'was found unconscious on the asphalt of the alley below. Although with a plate in his skull he has made a good recovery, it would be agreed that he suffered lots of damage.

Mrs. Callahan, Joe’s mother, as a tenant lived in one of the Buttrey apartments owned by defendants (appellees here). At the apartments there was no place for Joe and other children to play unless they played in their own apartment, someone else’s apartment or out behind on the second floor roof deck, which was in two levels.

Joe must have fallen to the pavement from the alley side of the lower roof deck. At the point where he evidently lost his balance and toppled over, there was a low wooden rail (2" x 4") thirty-one inches • high. Also, horizontally, about midway between the floor of the deck and the top rail was another “2 x 4”. Outside the rail, but apparently on the deck, were garbage cans which were placed to serve the apartments.

Whether Joe was up on top of the rail or was…