Phoebe Judge

Marvin's friends started looking around the kitchen, and Marvin headed for the bedroom.

What happened next led to a case that's still taught to first-year law students, more than 50 years later.

I'm Phoebe Judge.

This is Criminal.

After Marvin Katko was shot in the leg, the friend he'd broken into the farmhouse with helped him to the hospital.

He spent 40 days there.

He had to wear a cast for about a year, a brace for another year, and he lost two and a half inches of his leg.

His doctor said he had seriously considered amputation.

When Marvin Katko recovered while he was in the hospital,

He was admitting that he had broken into another person's premises.

What did he do?

Marvin pled guilty to larceny in the nighttime of property valued at less than $20.

He was fined $50 and given a 60-day suspended sentence.

And then he filed a lawsuit against the owners of the house he'd broken into, Ed and Bertha Briney.

Marvin Katko's lawsuit alleged that Ed and Bertha Briney had shown, quote, malice and intent to harm by rigging the shotgun, that they meant for someone to get seriously hurt.

Marvin Katko's lawyer told newspapers that he based his case on the theory that there was a big difference between protecting your life and home, where you live, and protecting property, and that you cannot use excessive force to protect property.

Andrew McClurg says the case might have been very different if Edinburgh the briny lived in the farmhouse and were there that night, but the house was vacant.

Ed and Bertha Briney's lawyer argued that the law allows for property to be defended with quote, all the force necessary.

And then he asked, who decides what is necessary?

Ed Briney said he felt like he was being quote, tormented by being robbed over and over again.