Camp Business July/August 2008

July 7, 2008

Rodney J. Auth, Publisher
Camp Business
PO Box 1166
Medina, OH 44258-1166

Re: Good Sense: The legalities of horseback riding at camp
Camp Business July/August 2008

Dear Mr. Auth:

The article Good Sense was very well written and very informative. I would like to point out two instances where the story may be misleading.

In the story the statement is made that liability releases may deter lawsuits but not for negligence. Releases stop lawsuits based on claims for negligence in 45 out of 50 states. Releases do not work for claims made by minors except in three states: California, Colorado and Ohio. The Florida Supreme Court is currently looking at this issue. So releases do work to stop suits, they only work when signed by someone over the age of consent.

The article also states that horses are “attractive nuisances.” They are not. An attractive nuisance is a condition on the land or a premises issue. The definition usually revolves around the term “artificial condition” upon the land.

Tennessee used the term creates a condition to define attractive nuisance as:

One who has that on his own premises, or who creates a condition on the premises of another, or in a public place, which may reasonably be apprehended to be a source of danger to children of tender years, is under a duty to take such precautions as a reasonably prudent person would take to prevent injury to such children whom he knows to be accustomed to resort there, or who may, by reason of something there which may be expected to attract them, come there to play. Mead v. Parker, 340 F.2d 157; 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 6909

The basis of the doctrine is to protect children from dangerous conditions on the land. Farm animals and pets have never been considered an attractive nuisance. A child should be instructed by their parents as to the dangers present in land; it is the special features of the premises created by man that a child may not know about that creates the liability.

The best example is a swimming pool is an attractive nuisance and a pond is not.

This article is needed because too often camps rely on equine liability acts to protect their business. When speaking to groups about equine liability acts I always make sure I tell them that those laws are 100% effective. Since their enactment no horse has been sued. However suits against horse owners have not changed. A horse cannot be held liable for negligence, which is what the acts cover, but a horse owner still can.

Sincerely,



James H. Moss
Editor Outdoor Recreation Law Review
www.snewsnet.com/lawreview
http://rec-law.blogspot.com/