Landowner’s Duty to Invitee(s)

February 12, 2019 Posted in Articles Tagged in Personal Injury Share

If the injured individual is considered to be an Invitee, in Pennsylvania, a landowners owes certain duties to that individual. A possessor of land is required to use reasonable care in the maintenance and use of the land, and to protect invitees from foreseeable harm.  Further, a possessor of land is also required to inspect the premises and to discover dangerous conditions. The Pennsylvania Civil Jury Charge 18.40 states that a possessor of land will be found liable for harm caused to an invitee by a condition of their land if:

1. the possessor of land knows or by using reasonable care would discover the condition that caused the injury, and the possessor should have realized that allowing the condition to exist involves an unreasonable risk of harm, and
2. the possessor of land should expect that the invitees will not discover or realize the danger, or will fail to protect themselves against it, and
3. the possessor of land fails it use reasonable care to protect the invites against the danger.

Although this seems straight forward, there are many other factors that must be considered in order to determine if a possessor of land will be liable for an invitee’s injury occurring on their land i.e. the possessor of land’s and/or injured individual’s knowledge of the dangerous condition prior to the injury.

Whether it be a slip and fall, trip and fall or some other type of injury occurring on a property, if you have questions about whether you are liable for an injury occurring on your property or have questions regarding an injury occurring on a property please contact a Bethlehem Injury Lawyer at The Law Offices of Edward J. McKarski for a free consultation.