Landowner's duty to a trespasser-2.

WORKING DRAFT
2014
STATE OF
WYOMING
14LSO-0107

HOUSE BILL
NO.

HB0023

Landowner's
duty to a trespasser-2.

Sponsored by:
Joint Judiciary Interim Committee

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to property; specifying the duty of care a landowner owes to a trespasser; providing definitions; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.

W
.
S
. 34-19
‑
201
through 34
‑
19-204

are
created to read:

ARTICLE 2
LIABILITY OF LANDOWNERS TO TRESPASSERS

34
‑
19
‑
201.

Definitions

(a)

As used in this article:

(
i
)

"Land" means land, including state land, roads, water, watercourses, private ways and buildings, structures, and machinery or equipment when attached to the realty;

(ii)

"Owner" means the owner of an interest in land, a tenant,
renter
, lessee, including a lessee of state lands, lawful occupant or person in control of the premises;

(iii)

"Trespasser" means
a person
or persons who enter or remain
upon land in the possession of another without a privilege to do so created by the
owner's consent or otherwise.

34
‑
19
‑
202
.

Duty of owner of land to trespasser.

Except as provided in
W.S
. 34-19-203, a
n owner of land
owe
s no
duty of care to a trespasser
and
is not liable for any in
jury to a trespasser
, except that
the o
wner

owes a duty not to willfully or wantonly
injur
e
a trespasser
.

34
‑
19
‑
20
3
.

Artificial conditions highly dangerous to trespassing c
hildren
.

(a)

A
n

owner
of
land
is subject to liability for physical harm to
a
child trespassing on
the
land

caused by an artificial condition upon the
land
if
:

(
i
)

T
he place where the condition exists is one upon which the
owner
knows or has reason to know that
a
child
is
likely to trespass
;

(
ii)

T
he condition is one of which the
owner
knows or has reason to know and which he realizes or should realize will involve an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to
the
child
;

(iii)

The child
because of
his
youth do
es
not discover the condition or realize the risk involved in intermeddling with it or in coming within the area made dangerous by it
;

(iv)

T
he utility to the
owner
of maintaining the condition and the burden of eliminating the danger are slight as compared with the risk to
the
child involved
; and

(v)

T
he
owner
fails to exercise reasonable care to eliminate the danger or o
therwise to protect the child
.

34
‑
19
‑
204
.

Conflicts.

If a statute other than a statute in this article prescribes a standard or duty of care that differs from that prescribed in this article, the other standard or duty of care shall control over the provisions of this article.

Section 2.

The provisions of this act shall apply to claims for relief based on injuries to a trespasser that occur on or after July 1, 2014.

Section
3
.
This act is effective July 1, 2014.

(END)

1
HB0023