Fault Is Harder To Assign With Children
Michael Babboni
Premises Liability
Any sensible person will tell you that there is a world of difference between a mature, cognizant adult with a basic understanding of the world and the environment, and a child who is still trying to figure out both how people and the world works. This is why there is a special set of laws in place for children, and this is why, even with terrible crimes like robbery and murder, when a child is involved, they are not tried—or punished—as an adult. Children are different and we have to be mindful of that.
This is why it’s important for property owners to understand that while some rules of responsibility and self-determination apply to people who get hurt on your property—especially trespassers—you shouldn’t rely on those same legal protections with children.
They Don’t Know Better, So You Should
In a typical case of injury on your property, many factors have to be weighed. For example, if you have a tree with a branch that is in danger of falling off, and you do nothing about it, but at a barbecue you host, one of your guests, standing under the tree, is hit and injured, you are most likely going to be at fault, and open to a personal injury lawsuit.
On the other side of the coin, if you have this same situation, but you are asleep in bed, in the dead of the night, and a thief decides to try to enter your property by climbing the tree, and falls off the tree with an injury because this branch broke out from underneath, you’re likely in the clear. A trespasser entering your property is not protected by the usual laws.
But there’s a third possibility in this, and that is when a child is involved. If your home has a swimming pool, or some other component that children find of interest, and a child were to try and climb that same tree and receive an injury, you would be at fault.
Ignorance Is An Excuse
In this last case, a legal aspect known as “attractive nuisance” is at work. This puts the responsibility for safety on your property squarely on your shoulders, even when children and trespassing are involved. The reason for this is because of the admission most of us have to make that children really don’t know any better, and that it is up to adults to act on their behalf to ensure a safe environment.
Even in a case such as a dog biting a person, things change when children are involved, depending on the age. For most people, if you issue a warning not to provoke a dog, or leave signs and other indicators on your property that a dog is hostile, anyone, even a child that is 13, for example, will be at fault if they ignore the warnings and provoke a dog anyway.
However, if a young child doesn’t listen to you, especially at much earlier ages, such two years, or less, should that dog respond to the provocation with a bite, you’re still responsible.
Always exercise more care and caution when it comes to children, because even if they harm themselves, it may still legally be your fault.