Georgia Premises Liability

In Georgia, claimants in premises liability suits must prove that the owner of the property was negligent and that negligence led directly to the incident of injury or harm. In this article we will go over the basics of Georgia premises liability law and some of its finer points. We will also explore how premises liability cases are handled if death occurs as a result of the premises negligence and then the case moves into the realm of Georgia wrongful death law.

Status of the Claimant

As in other states, Georgia has divided claimants into three categories: Invitees, Licensees, and Trespassers. Invitees are given the most protection under Georgia premises liability law and trespassers the least. 

An invitee can be a customer of the owner, an employee, or a member of a group invited to the property to participate in a meeting. In the case of an invitee, the property owner has an obligation to keep the premises safe for invitees with the exercise of ordinary care.

A licensee is also known as a "social guest," but according to Georgia premises liability law, there are many ways one can be considered a  licensee, such as someone coming to someone's property to offer someone a job, or to make a sales call. It can even include individuals entering the property to protect it like a fireman answering a fire alarm, or a security guard entering in response to a security alarm. One can lose their status as an invitee and become a licensee if, for instance, they enter into a restricted area. 

As in other states, owner must exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises safe for invitees. For licensees the owner needs to warn them of hidden dangers and must not wantonly expose them to some danger. If there was a failure to make a reasonable effort to warn the licensee of a dangerous situation that would warrant a valid Georgia premises liability law suit.

A trespasser is one who is on the property without permission. In the case of the trespasser, the owner has a legal obligation only to not willfully or wantonly do the trespasser harm or injure him or her. If the trespasser is a child then that can bring about a special circumstance if there is something on the property that would be considered attractive to the child like a swimming pool. That situation brings up the doctrine of attractive nuisance. In this case an owner of property would have a special liability in the case of children, who by law, depending on the age and maturity, are considered not able to appreciate the underlying hazard in an element on the property which is attracting their attention. 

Georgia courts, however, are conservative in the case of applying the attractive nuisance doctrine and have developed five points for testing the appropriateness of applying the doctrine to an individual case.

Under Georgia premises liability law, a property owner is liable for physical harm done to a child if an artificial hazard residing on the land meets the five following conditions:

1. If the owner knows that children would trespass where the condition is present, and
2. The owner has reason to believe that the condition in question poses a danger which could cause serious bodily injury or death to such children, and
3. The value of maintaining the condition to the owner are slight compared to protecting the safety of children, and
4. That children would not be aware of the risk of the hazard when encountering it, and
5. The owner fails to make a reasonable effort to eliminate the danger or otherwise protect the children.

All of the above five conditions must be met in order for the attractive nuisance doctrine to come into effect. The child must also be considered a trespasser and not a guest of the property owner.

In the case of natural property condition like a pond or a steep naturally occurring hill, the attractive nuisance doctrine would not apply.

Various Circumstances

Georgia premises liability law has provisions for different conditions under which the injurious or harmful incident took place. Here are a couple of conditions that are specifically addressed in Georgia law:

• Amusement parks. When a patron enters an amusement park he or she understands there is an amount of risk in participating on the ride, but the amusement park still has a legal obligation to take "ordinary care" in assuring the safety of the rides. A patron, for instance, cannot recover from incidents like the scrapping of an arm when making a turn in a ride. But if the ride malfunctions and a severe injury results the the amusement park owner could be held liable, or if the amusement park allows the unsafe operation of a ride.
• Static conditions. These are long standing features in a property like a curb or a ramp. The property owner is not usually liable for these features if someone trips over a feature. However the court case of Robinson v. Kroger Co. established a two part test for determining liability: (1) Someone complains of the condition, or (2) Someone is injured by the condition during its existence.
  This part of Georgia premises liability law can even become more complicated by the provision that if the complainant encountered a static static condition before and negotiated it safely then he or she would not have a valid claim, but if the static condition was altered in some way to make it dangerous then that provision would not apply.

 More of these conditions, as they apply to Georgia premises liability law, will be addressed in an upcoming article in this blog. We will also be dealing with, in some depth, how Georgia liability laws come into effect when someone dies as a result of negligence. This could be due to premises liability or for some other reason like a medically related incident.

The Basics of "Wrongful Death" in Georgia

"Wrongful Death" in Georgia state law is defined as when the"negligent, reckless, intentional or criminal," acts by another person or an entity such as a business causes the death of a person. Wrongful death is handled in a related manner to injury cases. Just like in injury cases, negligence must also be proven. The big difference between injury cases and wrongful death cases is that the person injured cannot bring the case to court him or herself and must have someone bring the case on their behalf.

 In Georgia wrongful death cases Georgia law specifies that the spouse of the deceased brings the complaint to the court, and would also represent the interests of the children of the deceased. Georgia law further states that the spouse get at least one-third of the total recovery no matter how many children the deceased had. If there is no spouse of children to bring the case forward, then the surviving parent or parents of the decease bring the claim to the court, or the personal representative of the deceased's estate can bring the claim to the court.

There are a number of damages which can be claimed in a Georgia court in a wrongful death case, such as related medical expenses, loss of companionship or care, loss of wages or benefits the deceased could have earned if he or she had survived, funeral and burial expenses, and for the pain and suffering the deceased experienced before death.

The statute of limitation in a Georgia wrongful death case is normally two years, but there are exceptions as in if there is criminal case in relation to the wrongful death, then the time clock will toll or stop until the criminal case is completed, and then the clock will start running again after the criminal case is completed. If the deceased estate is not probated then the statute of limitation can stretch out to five years. If both of the previous circumstances apply then there can be up to seven years to file a charge for the case.

As you can see there is a lot of subtleties in Georgia premises liability law and wrongful death law. We can only touch on a portion of it in one article. That is why you need to consult a knowledgeable and experienced attorney in these parts of the law in order to understand your options and the strength of your case. Legal Genius can help you with your case. Contact us now.