|
3.9-2 Status of Parties - Trespasser
Revised to January 1, 2008
A trespasser is a person
who enters or remains upon land in the possession of another without
a privilege to do so.
A possessor of land owes
no duty to safeguard from harm a person who comes upon the land as a
trespasser. The possessor has a right to assume that no one will
trespass upon the land. The possessor has no duty to keep the land
reasonably safe for any adult trespasser. Rather, there is only a
duty to refrain from intentional, willful, wanton or reckless
conduct that causes injury to the trespasser.
If a possessor of land has
knowledge that trespassers constantly intrude upon a limited area of
the land, the possessor of land is liable for an artificial
condition that caused injury to the trespasser on that part of the
land if all of the following are met:
-
the condition is one
that the possessor has created or maintains, and
-
the condition is one
that, to the possessor's knowledge, is likely to cause death or
serious bodily harm to such trespassers, and
-
the condition is of
such a nature that the possessor has reason to believe that such
trespassers will not discover it, and
-
the possessor has
failed to use reasonable care to warn such trespassers of the
artificial condition and the risk involved.
|
