Trees are the centerpiece of every city. With trees, places are more appealing and more comfortable to live.
However:
There comes a situation where the tree falls down and cause some injury to a person. Liability of falling tree injury can become tricky if this matter arises.
Falling tree injury liability can be subject to many conditions such as who owned that tree or that place where the tree has fallen.
This situation can have more threats on that particular person or property owner who will be taken to legal trouble and facing a lawsuit.
At that moment, for the injured victim, if he knows about the rules of the game, he can easily handle his lawsuit which can help him in receiving a decent amount of compensation.
Stay Tuned:
- What Is Falling Tree Injury Liability?
- Who Is Responsible When Trees Fall?
- How Negligence Determines Fault
- Municipal Liability for Public Trees
- Protecting Yourself From Tree-Related Lawsuits
What Is Falling Tree Injury Liability?
Falling tree injury liability is a term that means the legal responsibility for injuries or damages caused when a tree or branches fall on a person or property.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA shows that the statistics of deaths due to tree falling are over 100 in the United States.
This does not count the innocent people who also suffer from death or life-threatening injuries by the fallen trees.
It can happen in a place where it is least expected. Like:
- A child can also face injuries on a playground.
- A passerby may get injured on the street in San Diego.
- A driver may get affected by the sudden fall of a tree on their cars.
Falling tree injury liability becomes an important aspect of this field of law due to its complexity in order to prevent any legal liability that may occur in this matter.
Who Is Responsible When Trees Fall?
First of all, the responsibility of a tree that has fallen on someone depends on one thing.
The ownership of the tree
It is quite simple; if the trunk of the tree is only on one property, the owner of that property also owns that tree.
But if that trunk of the tree is divided on the basis of the line of the properties, then the neighbors or both sides of the divided property also own that tree.
Now, it all depends on the ownership of that particular tree.
Because in some cases, the owner may be liable due to falling tree injury liability. But, according to the “act of God” rule or sometimes called an “act of nature,” the owner is free from that responsibility or liability.
If that tree has fallen due to some natural cause, as in this case, no one has the right to take any legal action against the tree owner.
How Negligence Determines Fault
Negligence is a situation that can make or break a legal action due to fallen tree injuries.
A fallen tree injury lawsuit will be won only when the plaintiff has enough proof of:
- Duty to the plaintiff by the tree owner.
- Breach of that duty by the tree owner by not inspecting that tree or that particular area or part which later on may cause a problem and that may go out of hand.
- Causation: The fallen tree causes the injury to the victim.
- Damages: The victim should suffer from medical or any other damage.
The duty to perform the inspection is based on that area where the tree is situated. The owner should take care of the tree only up to the point they have been determined. For example, a tree that is growing on the border of two properties.
Urban areas are judged to have higher standards of duties than rural areas.
This means that the cities or towns have more pedestrian activity around trees which further increases the risk of damages due to injuries by a fallen tree.
Urban tree owners must inspect and maintain the trees present on their property and remedy any conditions that could foreseeably cause harm to others.
If a pedestrian gets injured or any other member of the public gets injured because of the improper or illegal situation of trees, the pedestrian or public individual can take this as a defensive action against a tree owner.
The owner should hire a professional arborist to get an inspection done and show proof that the tree owner took all the preventive measures in a reasonable manner.
Municipal Liability for Public Trees
Who has the liability of the tree if the tree is situated on any public property? Like parks, sidewalks, and street medians?
The answer is a municipality.
The liability of the government and city also depends on the negligence.
But there comes an extra point as an immunity of municipality.
According to the research about municipality, there comes the provision of the problem regarding falling down of trees. Due to this, there can be traumatic injury admissions due to trees. This further increases the cost of hospitalization.
States have a sovereign immunity law which directly means that it provides immunity from any type of negligence regarding falling down of trees. But there are exceptions in this provision.
As a good part of the code that the municipalities should get the notice of that particular injury so that they can directly take legal action. If a municipality has a prior knowledge of a tree which can pose a danger in a specific period, they can act against that as negligence.
Final Words
Trees are one of the primary reasons that a city or country is considered safe or secure.
Falling tree injury liability can make or break the case for either tree owner or the injured person.
This is based on the most effective responsibility of the owner in that particular area or street. The owner should have a sufficient amount of experience in this field to have an ideal solution if any unforeseen problem occurs.
- Tree ownership determines initial responsibility.
- Negligence transforms ownership into liability.
- Urban property owners face higher inspection standards.
- Municipalities can be sued despite immunity protections.
The final message is always to go for the experts to face a legal issue. The cost of the lawsuit is nothing compared to an inspection fee.