Premises Liability – Is the Property Owner Responsible?

Premises liability is where personal injury and property law intersect. Georgia law requires businesses and property owners to protect guests from known risks. Property owners must take steps to ensure they inspect their property and to remove known risks that might exist. Such inspections could include a store owner routinely inspecting aisles, cleaning spills and removing debris to prevent customers from being injured. Alternatively, a store owner may prevent access to areas where a spill has occurred and cleaning the spill as quickly and safely to protect customers from the potential hazard.

To understand the duty a property owner owes to a visitor or guest on the premises we must determine why the individual is on the property. There are three basic categories of visitors and the landowner is required to protect each category in a different way.

Trespasser

A trespasser is someone who enters the property wrongfully and without the landowner or operator’s permission. The landowner or operator is aware of frequent trespassers on the premises there is a duty to warn of known dangerous conditions.

Licensee

A licensee is someone who enters the property for his or her own purpose and is present at the consent of the property owner. A licensee is not a customer, employee or trespasser. To a licensee, the landowner has a duty to ensure safety on the property by repairing and/or warning of known dangerous conditions that are not obvious to licensee. Generally, a property owner owes no duty to inspect for dangerous conditions.

Invitee

An Invitee is anyone who has been invited onto a property. Property owners and business operators have a duty to take reasonable steps to maintain safety on property. The landowner or operator must also warn and/or repair known dangerous. Finally, the landowner or operator has a duty to inspect the property to discover if unknown dangerous conditions exist.

No matter why you are on the property, a property owner likely owes you some level of care. Therefore, it is important to get medical attention after an injury and then speak to our experienced attorneys.

On Behalf of The Law Office of Nicholas P. Martin
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