The Attractive Nuisance Doctrine

The Attractive Nuisance doctrine is a legal concept which stems from the notion of premise liability, which holds property owners liable for hazards that may be on their property. In most cases, property owners are only liable for persons who are on their property with the owner's explicit or implicit permission: this person may be a person shopping at a grocery store or a social guest at a party. Most jurisdictions do not find property owners liable for persons who have trespassed on their property; that is, they are on the property without the permission of the property owner.

One of the most notable exceptions to the lack of liability is the Attractive Nuisance doctrine. Children are a special class of people, from a legal perspective, because they do not have the full rational capacity that adult do. An adult understands that, no matter what may be on another person's property, it is never acceptable to enter that property without the owner's permission. However, a child may easily be enticed to enter someone's property without permission by an attractive structure, which may be a swimming pool or a play scape. Children do not fully understand the concepts of property ownership and the consequences of violating that, and furthermore, they do not understand the potential risks associated with these structures.

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The Attractive Nuisance doctrine holds property owners liable for any injuries to children that may trespass onto their property with the intent to play on these attractive structures. At first, this may seem like a very questionable form of liability. However, it cannot be denied that certain structures are very enticing to children, and yet pose extreme risk. The most common example of an Attractive Nuisance is a swimming pool; children may enter the swimming pool and quickly drown without adult supervision. A property owner must understand that this is a possibility, and should take reasonable steps to prevent this from occurring.

This is one of the key facets of the Attractive Nuisance doctrine: the steps that must be taken to prevent injury to children must be reasonable. In most cases, a property owner can prevent children from accessing a swimming pool simply by placing a lock on his or her gate. If a child manages to circumvent the lock, typically the property owner will not be held liable, because he or she has taken reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of the structure. After all, a property owner cannot be expected to surround their house with a concrete wall and barbed wire!

The Attractive Nuisance Doctrine

If you have any questions about the Attractive Nuisance doctrine, contact the Indianapolis personal injury attorneys at the Charles D. Hankey Law Office.

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