All information herein contained is for reference purposes only, contact an experienced premises liability attorney for more information.
Most usually the things that come under the scope of premises liability are accidents. Such accidents often cause the creation of injuries and damages. Due to this fact, these matters must usually be settled in court due to lawsuits.
What Are the Legal Parties that Could Be Involved in Premises Liability?
Determining liability for an accident that occurs on a piece of property involves determining the legal classification of the parties involved. The legal term for the person that owns a piece of property is the possessor. This can be either a homeowner or a business owner.
People that may have been injured on the possessor’s property can be broken down into three groups. The first group is invitees. These are people that are allowed to come onto the property with the intent of doing business. This often includes customers.
The second group is licensees. These are people that are invited to enter onto a property for reasons other than business. House guests are one such example.
Lastly, there are trespassers. These are people that are not invited onto a property. In almost all jurisdictions, trespassing on private property closed to the public is a crime.
How Is Premises Liability Determined?
Whether a person is an invitee, licensee, or trespasser will determine what kind of liability a possessor has after that person is injured.
Possessors have the highest liability when it comes to accidents that injure invitees. In fact, business owners may be held liable for a customer’s injuries even if the business owner had no idea that such a danger existed. Business owners are expected to be proactive to make sure that no such dangers for customers exist on their property.
Homeowners that simply invite licensees onto their property as friends can also be held liable. However, this liability is not as broad in scope as it is for invitees. For example, a homeowner must fix dangers on his or her property if that homeowner becomes aware of them. If not, the homeowner can be held liable. However, the homeowner is not expected to be nearly as proactive as a business owner.
Lastly there are trespassers. Trespassers have the least amount of protection out of all three groups. It is possible that a possessor could still be held liable for an injury that occurred to a trespasser. However, the possessor must have been aware of the trespasser’s presence on the property for a sustained period of time. Due to the fact that trespassing is an unwanted crime, this is extremely unlikely.
This writing should not be used for legal advice and should only be used for educational reasons.
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