Premises Liability And Landowners’ Responsibility For Injuries

It’s summertime in Anne Arundel County: time for swimming pools, boating, running through sprinklers and snowballs! No, not the snowballs of winter play, but the powdery shaved ice that’s drenched in brightly colored flavored syrup and, if you’re willing to spare another 25 to 99 cents, draped in marshmallow fluff for extra yumminess.

But beware the accidents of summer: the child who is not properly supervised at the community swimming pool, an ankle twisted on a mossy boat ramp, the Amazon delivery person who trips on the hose to the sprinkler, or maybe a slip and fall on a spilled and melted snowball!

To attorneys, these are premises liability cases, involving a category of law that governs one’s injury on someone else’s property. These causes of action are based upon the concept of negligence or carelessness, and they arise from the duty an owner of real property owes to a visitor. The standard of care owed by the property owner depends on the status of the person injured: an invitee, social guest, licensee or trespasser.

A customer at a business is an invitee. Invitee status may be proven in two ways: either the customer and business engage for a mutual benefit, or the invitee has an implied invitation to be on the premises. For example, a customer at a grocery store or restaurant would fall into this category. In these cases, a business has a duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to maintain the premises safely. If there is an unsafe condition, the inquiry will focus on whether the business owner knew or should have known about the hazardous condition, and whether or not the business owner had sufficient time to correct it. If the answer to these two questions is yes and the business failed to correct the problem, then there may be a case for premises liability.

A social guest is invited onto the property; these are your family members, friends and neighbors. The duty of care a property owner owes to a social guest is less than that owed to an invitee: it is to warn the social guest of an unreasonable risk of harm about which the property owner knows and the guest would not be expected to discover. For example, if you are hosting a cookout and a wooden plank in your deck is rotting, please let your guests know!

A licensee is a person who has permission to be on the property but is there for his or her own purposes. A property owner only has a duty to refrain from “willfully and wantonly” injuring a licensee and to refrain from creating a source of danger without warning the licensee.

As for a trespasser, this person intentionally enters another person’s property without permission. A property owner owes no duty to a trespasser to keep the property in a safe condition. The owner must only refrain from “willfully or wantonly” injuring or entrapping a trespasser.

The exception to this trespasser standard is that sometimes children are treated differently if you have what is considered an “attractive nuisance” such as a swimming pool, tree house, trampoline, etc. If a child is drawn to an item on the property and is injured, that could be considered a premises liability case.

Maryland is one of four states that still abide by the common law concept of contributory negligence. As such, if the injured person is even 1% responsible for his or her injury, then that negligence is a complete bar to recovery, meaning the injured has no path for legal recourse. Additionally, if a person is aware of a dangerous condition, but intentionally and voluntarily exposes himself or herself to this danger, that assumption of risk is a complete bar to recovery.

If you or someone you know suffers an injury as the result of the carelessness of a property owner, or if you are a property owner and someone is injured on your property, you should consult with an attorney familiar in this area. The attorneys at The Law Office of David V. Diggs are experienced in all legal facets of personal injury and death.

If you need further information, contact The Law Office of David V. Diggs LLC, located at 8684 Veterans Highway, Suite 204, in Millersville, by calling 410-244-1171 or by emailing david@diggslaw.com.