Question

Ned lived close to office and on good weather days would often walk to and from work. Ned was walking home one day when the weather changed and it looked like he would get caught in a storm. To shorten his walk and avoid the storm, Ned decided to take a short cut through an empty lot. He had used the route through the lot before and had even waved “hello” to the owner a few times. On this trip, he hopped over the short fence surrounding the lot and continued his walk, glancing occasionally at the sky to check the development of the storm. As he looked up, he did not notice an open pit that was partially covered with overgrown brush and fell in. He was injured and sued the lot owner for negligence in failing to warn about the open pit. Will Ned win his lawsuit? Does the owner of the lot have any defense he can assert that might allow him to avoid or reduce his liability?

Answer 1

In my opinion, Ned will not win the lawsuit. This is because the path that he took was the path through a personal property and was not a common or pedestrian path. Ned hopped over the short fence to enter a lot which was owned by someone and was not a public lot or public path. Since Ned went through a private property, hence he won't win the lawsuit.

Owner of the lot can defend himself by saying that since the lot belonged to him and no trespassing was allowed in the lot, hence in case anyone crossed the lot, the owner was not liable for the damages caused due to any injury suffered to that person. It is illegal to enter anyone's public property, hence the other person is at fault if he enters the owner's property, not the owner. This will avoid any liability on the owner.