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Injuries at Your Home and on Your Property
Under traditional legal principles, your liability
to people injured on your property changed according to the reason
they came onto your property. Were they there to visit, to sell,
to solicit, to fix something, or to trespass? A more recent trend,
however, holds land or property owners to a general duty of care
to prevent injury to anyone coming onto their property, unless the
dangerous condition was open and obvious.
A furniture delivery person was injured when
he tripped over an electrical extension cord in my living room.
Can he recover damages from me?
He could sue, though it is not certain that he would win. As noted
above, until recently your liability for someone's personal injuries
while at your home hinged on why he or she was there. If people
were doing work for you, the law held that you had a special duty
to make your home reasonably safe. In those situations, a court
would have asked if the cord were dangerous to anyone who came into
your living room, or was it only dangerous if someone moved your
furniture? Did you warn the deliveryperson to watch out for the
cord? Courts would need the answers to such questions to decide
if you are liable to the deliveryperson. A growing trend would make
you liable for the injury only if you failed to exercise a general
duty of care. By the way, homeowner's insurance policies generally
protect homeowners in cases such as these.
A door-to-door salesperson tripped on our
front steps, injuring himself. May he hold me responsible?
Perhaps. A door-to door salesperson may expect that you will warn
him about dangerous conditions on your property that may not be
obvious. If your steps were in perfect condition and he merely lost
his footing, a court would not hold you responsible. However, if
he tripped because one of the stairs was wobbly and you knew about
it, you should have repaired it or posted a warning sign.
What if a salesperson, or another passerby,
falls on an icy sidewalk in front of my house?
In some places, ordinances say that landowners whose property is
next to a public sidewalk are responsible for keeping the sidewalk
in repair and clear of ice and snow. But elsewhere owners have no
duty to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow that have collected
on adjacent public sidewalks. In fact, they may be liable for negligence
if they undertake such a job and do not make the sidewalks safe.
If landowners fail to take reasonable action to correct a dangerous
condition on the sidewalk, other than a natural accumulation of
ice or snow, that they knew or should have known about, however,
they can be held liable.
Would I be liable if a trespasser gets injured
on my property?
You generally are not liable for any injury to a trespasser on your
property. Suppose, however, that you know certain people continually
trespass on your property, perhaps using it as a shortcut. Then
a court might find that you should have notified these regular trespassers
about any hidden artificial conditions of which you were aware could
seriously injure them.
A group of eight-year-old children has been
playing in a vacant lot that I own. Could I be liable if one of
them gets injured?
Yes, the law generally places a greater burden on landowners when
injuries involve children. The reason is that children are too young
to understand or appreciate danger in certain situations. Under
a legal theory known as the attractive nuisance doctrine, owners
who knew or should know about potentially dangerous artificial conditions
on their lot must warn children who are playing there, or must take
reasonable precautions to protect them. If, for example, there is
machinery or other equipment on your vacant lot that could present
an unreasonable risk to children, you should remove it. If you don't,
you could very well be liable to the children for any injuries they
suffer, even if they were trespassing. In some jurisdictions, the
attractive nuisance doctrine is being replaced by a duty of reasonable
care under the circumstances.
Our children's friends often come to swim
in our backyard pool, even though we are not always able to be there.
What if one of them gets hurt?
You are liable because you have a legal duty to protect children
from possible harm should they decide to play around a dangerous
place on your property. You should make sure an adult is present
when children are swimming, though this will not necessarily avoid
liability. And warning the children that they should not swim without
an adult present may not be enough to avoid liability if one of
them gets injured. Also check with your state or city to find out
its requirements for residential swimming pools. Under them, you
may have a legal duty to erect barriers or such other protective
features as an automatic pool cover, a tall fence with a good lock
that you keep locked or an alarm on the sliding glass door from
your home to the pool.
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