landowner's liability and ATV usage

Can anyone direct me to a website or provide me with information about a landowner's liability when the hunter wants to use an ATV on the hunting lease?
 

shdw633

Senior Member
Can anyone direct me to a website or provide me with information about a landowner's liability when the hunter wants to use an ATV on the hunting lease?

I don't know of any websites, you may have to talk with a lawyer. I hunted a piece of land a few years back that the owner would not allow ANY atv's. Seems he knew another farmer who allowed atv's and one of the hunters fell off and cracked his head leaving him a paraplegic (SP?), anyway the hunter sued the farmer and won. So if you are the landowner I would definitely rely on the words of an attorney.
 

benellisbe

Senior Member
I was waiting to see if anyone else would chime in on this subject... I'll take a stab and state that if land is posted properly and someone trespasses, you COULD be held liable. I believe that you are protected under state laws, but could still be liable in a civil lawsuit (which is almost always the case).

I do know a guy in Burke county that allowed a neighbors son to hunt his property and ride a 4-wheeler to/from the stand. The kid was messing around and ended up rolling the 4-wheeler over on himself and broke his back... the landowner had to front all the medical bills and (i think) was sued as well.

My property is already posted every 100 feet around the entire property, but I'm probably going to fence it as well. It will be a ton of fence, but its hard to argue you were riding your 4 wheeler and got on my land without knowing it... Just my .02 cents.
 

hoochfisher

Banned
seems that it would fall under the same law stating landowners are not liable when alllowing rec use of their land. i'm refering to the law listed on page 18 of the hunting reg book.
 

saltysenior

Senior Member
seems that it would fall under the same law stating landowners are not liable when alllowing rec use of their land. i'm refering to the law listed on page 18 of the hunting reg book.

all of above depends on a jury,if sued....don't make any difference who is right or wrong,if you got money some one will sue because lawyers will want the case for a % of the award,if any........worked for a man w/a few bucks who invested in quite a bit of land which ran on the west side of I-95 s.of daytona,all woods.....after he bought it ,he found out what the insurance would be to protect himself...they said because there two ponds on the property that could be seen from the hiway,it held an ''attraction''......even w/ I-95's fence,posted signs every where,and a local to watch the property.... the amount he paid to be covered caused all his ''partners'' to leave him holding the bag .......this happened 30 years ago:crazy:
 

benellisbe

Senior Member
all of above depends on a jury,if sued....don't make any difference who is right or wrong,if you got money some one will sue because lawyers will want the case for a % of the award,if any........worked for a man w/a few bucks who invested in quite a bit of land which ran on the west side of I-95 s.of daytona,all woods.....after he bought it ,he found out what the insurance would be to protect himself...they said because there two ponds on the property that could be seen from the hiway,it held an ''attraction''......even w/ I-95's fence,posted signs every where,and a local to watch the property.... the amount he paid to be covered caused all his ''partners'' to leave him holding the bag .......this happened 30 years ago:crazy:

Exactly... Given the intelligence level of some of the people I know who have had jury duty... ::ke:
 
I have a friend named Steve who lost a lot of money because some kid pushed through a weak spot in his privacy fence, came onto his property, and hurt himself. The kid testified that Steve knew about the fence because he'd been run off before. The lawyer argued succesfully that Steve invited re-entry to his property by not repairing his fence.
 

redlevel

Senior Member
Exactly... Given the intelligence level of some of the people I know who have had jury duty... ::ke:

There are a dozen people who post regularly on the various hunting forums who would relish the opportunity to sit on a jury and really sock it to a rich, greedy landowner.

Most of them have neither a pot nor a window.
 
Have a good Lawyer work up a liability waiver to protect landowner and have a maxium allowed speed for the ATV of 10-15 Mph. ATV operator to always wear helmet, proper ATV operation Etc.

And if you are the landowner always talk to your insurance company.
 
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