Trespassers

For a property owner, there are three types of people to legally think of entering your property. One, invitees are intentionally supposed to be on the property and are owed a duty of ordinary care. A licensee is legally permitted on the property and its owner must simply not display willful and wanton conduct and protect the licensee from potential danger. The third type, trespassers, are a bit more complex. As a general rule, a property owner does not owe any duty of care to a trespasser on their property. The only standard that they must uphold is to not have purposeful, intentional traps set up for trespassers; this is called willful and wanton conduct. They cannot display willful and wanton conduct to put a potential trespasser in danger.

This rule does have some caveats. If the trespasser goes undiscovered by the property owner, the general rule applies. If the trespasser is discovered at any given point, they then owe them a duty of ordinary care. This includes warning them of any potentially dangerous conditions on the property or actively protecting them and ensuring their safety to avoid liability.

There is also an exception for particularly aggressive dogs. A vicious or aggressive dog may be in a property owner’s backyard with a sign warning of the dog. However, if there is still a trespasser, undiscovered or discovered, that is injured by this dog’s attack, then the property owner is likely liable. They may even be found liable if they exercised reasonable care in the event that a trespasser enters. Specifically, this applies when the dog exhibits dangerous propensities, which can be defined as certain characteristics that make it a threat of injury to a human being.

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