Liability Issues?

[Current Resident]

If a landowner grants me permission to hide a cache on his property, is he opening himself up to a lawsuit by an accident-prone cache hunter? And what about my liability as the cache owner - and does it differ if I hide one on private vs. public land, assuming I obtain the necessary permissions?

 

I'm concerned with WI and MN, if the governing statutes vary state by state.

[dsandbro]

In most cases I would think not unless the cache location was a known hazard. Then the cache may be considered an attractive nuisance, but I think that would be a stretch.

[+sbell111]

IMO, you both have potential liability concerns. This can be minimized through disclaimers on the cache page, but not completely eliminated. Juries make weird and unpredictable decisions.

[+Sissy-n-CR]

It all depends on how much money you have.

 

Even if you put all of the disclaimers and warnings what if someone takes a wrong turn and gets hurt far from you cache? People will sue if they think they can get some money, pure and simple.

 

CR

[+Alphatexana]

If a landowner grants me permission to hide a cache on his property, is he opening himself up to a lawsuit by an accident-prone cache hunter? And what about my liability as the cache owner - and does it differ if I hide one on private vs. public land, assuming I obtain the necessary permissions?

 

I think that there is some exposure to the land owner. I'll review below the general standard of care that the land owner will owe to persons visiting his or her property to search for a cache (in Texas, anyway). It would be more difficult to hold you liable as the cache owner. Generally, as long as you act as a "reasonable and prudent person" in placing and describing the risks that accompany your cache, you will be okay.

 

Back to the land owner, as a general rule the standard of care owed to a person on your property who is injured as a result of a condition on your property will increase as their presence is known, permitted and invited. For example, under Texas law, there are three classes of persons when it comes to "premise liability" claims.

 

The first class is known as a business invitee. Think customers of store. These are persons who are on the premise for some business purpose that benefits the owner (or lessee) of the premises. If you are an invitee, the owner has to a duty to avoid presenting you with an "unreasonable risk of harm" which he or she knew or should have known about. A good example is a banana peel that is dropped in the produce aisle at the grocery store (and there are cases on this). If the evidence shows that the banana peel was "fresh" and only recently dropped then the injured visitor will have a difficult time establishing tha tthe owner knew or should have known o fthe risk of harm, but if the evidence is that it had been there half a day, well, the owner will probably lose on that issue.

 

In Texas, the next class of person is the licensee. This is probably where the average geocacher who is hiking on private land with the owner's permission would fall. This is where you have permission to be on the property, but it really isn't for any business purpose. Think about visiting your neighbor's house for supper. In this type of circumstance, the owner must have actual knowledge of the dangerous condition and then have failed to correct it or warn you about it in order to be liable. Fortunately this is a fairly high standard. It helps us feel better about inviting our friends over for dinner, right? Since a warning is permitted to shift the risk, this could make putting good warnings on cache pages very helpful.

 

The final class of person is the trespasser. If a geocacher does not have permission of the land owner and hikes over their land to get to the cache, they are a trespasser. In Texas, the only duty the owner has is to not injure you intentionally. (There are some exceptions to this rule, such as if you can anticipate children trespassing on the property and the property contains an attractive hazard).

 

I'd always feel better from a liability perspective hiding a cache on public park land with the park manager's permission. Park lands are anticipated to be used by the public for hiking and the type of activity that accompanies geocaching. While governmental entities may have some limits on their tort exposure, they typically are more used to handling and managing these types of risks and liabilities than your average private land owner.

 

Hope this answers your question,

 

Alphatexana

[+Renegade Knight]

In Idaho if the landowner doesn't charge they are not liable.

[+Brian - Team A.I.]

It all depends on how much money you have.

 

Even if you put all of the disclaimers and warnings what if someone takes a wrong turn and gets hurt far from you cache? People will sue if they think they can get some money, pure and simple.

 

CR

So if I disclaim that I'm broke they won't sue?

[+Renegade Knight]

So if I disclaim that I'm broke they won't sue?

Just don't admit your rich uncle helped you place the cache.

[+marinor]

you could always entice them back and shoot them for trespassing

 

or just countersue for trespass if you don't like big bangs

 

stay safe

Bill