Abstract
For over a century, the common law status categories of trespasser, licensee and invitee have defined the duties of landowners and occupiers toward persons injured upon their premises. Only the business invitee, whose presence benefits the owner, has been owed a fully developed duty of reasonable care under the general negligence formtia. The licensee, whose presence is permitted or tolerated without special benefit to the owner, is entitled to be warned of known hidden dangers and is protected against injury from willful and wanton acts or, in more recent years, from active negligence." Trespassers, those impermissibly on the land, generally are protected only from intentional injury. Important exceptions or qualifications have developed for infant intruders, discovered trespassers, constant trespassers on a limited area, and public invitees. But the law continues to vary the protection owed to the victim according to his legally defined status upon entering the land.
Recommended Citation
Hawkins, Carl S.
(1981)
"Premises Liability After Repudiation of the
Status Categories: Allocation of Judge
and Jury Functions,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1981:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1981/iss1/3