The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court has affirmed the trial court’s determination that a New Jersey law exempts landowner’s from negligence liability when the premises are used for sport or recreational activities.
Joseph Lareau sued the Somerset County Park Commission and the Green Knoll Golf Course for personal injuries that Lareau sustained after falling on a wet carpet footbridge located on the golf course. In his complaint, Lareau claimed that he was walking with his in-laws along the golf course, when he slipped on the wet bridge. Lareau’s complaint states that Somerset County and the administrators of the golf course were negligent in failing to maintain a safe walking path for individuals traversing the golf course.
The trial judge dismissed the lawsuit, citing the New Jersey Landowner’s Liability Act, which states that a landowner “owes no duty to keep the premises safe for entry or use by others for sport and recreational activities, or to give warning of any hazardous condition of the land or in connection with the use of any structure or by reason of any activity on such premises to persons entering for such purposes.” The Appellate Division agreed with the trial judge, and further elaborated that owners of rural and semi-rural tracts of land have immunity from slip-and-fall personal injury lawsuits, even if the land is partly used for commercial enterprise.
This marks an important decision for New Jersey personal injury law, as it becomes even more difficult to sue landowners for their negligence in maintaining open-access land in a reasonably safe condition.
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