Duties Owed By Florida Premises Owners
To Visitors On Their Property
Why is the Person on the Property?
Under Florida law, the duty owed by premises owners to visitors on their property depends upon their status on the property and/or the reason why the visitors are there.
If the person is on the property at the invitation of the owner, he or she is considered an invitee. See Wood v. Camp, 284 So.2d 691 (Fla. 1973) It is important to note that the invitation may be either express or implied. That is, if the visitor has an objectively reasonable belief that he or she has been invited or is otherwise welcome on the property, he or she is considered an invitee. See Fla.Stat.§768.075(3)(a).
If the presence of the person on the property is neither sought nor forbidden, but merely permitted or tolerated by the landowner, the person is considered an uninvited licensee. See Bishop v. National Bank of Florida, Inc., 609 So.2d 722 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992).
Lastly, if the person enters the premises of another without invitation and for their own purpose or convenience, they are considered to be a trespasser. See Post v. Lunney, 261 So.2d 146 (Fla. 1972).
What is the Duty Owed to the Person?
Under Florida law, premises owners owe invitees two basic duties: 1) To use reasonable care in maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition; and 2) To warn the invitees of concealed perils which are known or should be known by the landowner and that are unknown to the invitees and cannot be discovered by them through their use of ordinary care.
The duties owed by premises owners to uninvited licensees are: 1) To refrain from wanton negligence or willful misconduct; and 2) To warn them of defects or conditions that the landowner has actual knowledge of and which are not open to ordinary observation by the licensee. That is, if a person is an uninvited licensee on the premises, the owner may be liable to him/her if he/she is injured due to intentional acts by the owner or due to hidden dangers that are known by the owner.
While the duty owed to trespassers is the lowest, it depends, in part, upon whether the landowner knows of their presence or whether their presence is foreseeable. Fla.Stat.§768.075(2) defines a discovered trespasser as one whose presence is known within 24 hours preceding the accident.
If the trespasser is “discovered”, the landowner owes him/her a duty to refrain from gross negligence or intentional misconduct and to warn of him/her of hidden dangerous conditions that are known to the landowner. If the trespasser is “undiscovered”, the premises owner owes no duty to warn and must simply refrain from intentional misconduct or willful and wanton harm to the trespasser.
Practice Points
1) In light of the above standards, in order to adequately evaluate any potential liability for an accident or injury that may have occurred on the premises, it is important to first analyze determine why the plaintiff was on the defendant’s property at the time of the accident.
2) Notwithstanding facts and circumstances where strict liability may apply, Florida law generally does not hold property owners at fault for accidents simply because the plaintiff was injured on their premises. Therefore, despite frequently seen allegations that premises owners are negligent because of innocuous conditions such as uneven pavement or the mere presence of stationary objects, unless those conditions are proven to be unreasonably dangerous, no liability should be assessed against the premises owner.
3) It should be noted that an invitee’s status on the property may change if he or she either enters a different area or uses the property in a manner that was not contemplated by the original invitation.
4) Since invitees are expected and welcomed on the defendant’s property, they are owed the highest duty. This is evidenced by the fact that invitees are the only class of persons who are not required to prove that the premises owner had actual knowledge of the allegedly dangerous condition.
5) A property is not liable for negligence that results in the injury or death of a person who is attempting to commit a felony or who is engaged in the commission of a felony on the property. See Fla.Stat.§768.075(4).