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Torts • Negligence
TORT#038
Legal Definition
Landowners owe a duty to discovered or anticipated trespassers to warn of—or make safe—known, concealed, unsafe artificial conditions known to the landowner that pose risk of death or serious bodily injury (i.e., "death traps").
No duty is owed regarding natural conditions or less dangerous artificial ones.
No duty is owed regarding natural conditions or less dangerous artificial ones.
Plain English Explanation
When a landowner knows that either (a) a trespasser is already on their land, or (b) they should anticipate that trespassers will be on their land, then they have a duty to either warn of, or fix, any "death traps" on their land. Think of a "death trap" as being a structure or condition that someone created on the land that creates an extremely dangerous risk to anyone who may encounter it (especially if they were surprised by it).
Even though a landowner generally owes no duty to trespassers, the law wants to encourage landowners to not be complete monsters. In other words, though trespassing is bad, knowingly allowing humans to trespass unsuspectingly into things that can potentially kill them is worse.
Even though a landowner generally owes no duty to trespassers, the law wants to encourage landowners to not be complete monsters. In other words, though trespassing is bad, knowingly allowing humans to trespass unsuspectingly into things that can potentially kill them is worse.
Related Concepts
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