Opinion ID: 422139
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lack of Payment of Consideration to United States.

Text: 26 The Government contends that, even if moorage and trailer fees and cafe-store purchases constitute consideration in the sense of 41.510(3)(b), the exception does not apply since ECR, and not the United States, operated the cafe-store and rental facilities. The Government argues that since ECR had no power to deny permission to the Users to recreate in Eldorado Canyon and since the Users paid ECR and not the United States for all rentals and purchases, the consideration is not in return for permission to recreate as required by subsection 41.510(3)(b). We reject that argument. 27 Subsection 41.510(3)(b) does not specify to whom consideration must be tendered. We think it a fair reading of the provision, however, that consideration must be tendered directly or indirectly to a person who has the power to grant or deny permission to participate in recreational activities. Since the concession agreement did not give ECR the power to deny permission to recreate in Eldorado Canyon, the exception is applicable only if consideration was tendered, directly or indirectly, to the United States in return for permission to recreate in Eldorado Canyon. We conclude that this condition is met in this case. 28 Before entering its concession agreement with ECR, the United States certainly was free to deny permission to recreate in Eldorado Canyon. See Jones v. United States, 693 F.2d 1299, 1302-03 (9th Cir.1982). Thereafter, however, it was not. The concession agreement required the concessioner to provide and maintain facilities, to offer services, and to pay to the government a fixed percentage of all revenues from operations. Implicit in the agreement was a commitment on the government's part that users would be allowed to enter the area to use the concession facilities. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the consideration tendered here by the Users to ECR was in return for permission to participate in recreational activities in Eldorado Canyon in the sense of subsection 41.510(3)(b). 13 29 In so holding, we break no new ground. While we recognize that the case law pertaining to the recreational use statutes of other jurisdictions must be viewed cautiously because of variations from statute to statute, we see our interpretation of subsection 41.510(3)(b) to be in keeping with this court's construction of similar consideration exception clauses in the recreational use statutes of other states. 30 In Graves v. United States Coast Guard, for example, the Ninth Circuit imposed liability on the United States although the plaintiff had paid his camping fee to a private campground operator, who had leased the camping area from the United States. 692 F.2d at 73. Noting that the statute did not specify to whom the consideration is to be paid, we held that even though the fee was paid to the government's lessee and not to the United States, the fee constituted a consideration in return for permission to enter for a recreational purpose and thereby invoked the consideration exception to deny immunity to the United States under the California recreational use statute. Id. 31 Similarly, in Thompson v. United States, 592 F.2d 1104 (9th Cir.1979), we denied immunity to the government. An injured motorcycle rider had paid a fee to a racing association in return for permission to participate in a motorcycle race. Id. at 1108. The racing association had previously paid a fee to the Bureau of Land Management for the right to hold a race on government land. Even though the injured rider had not himself paid a fee to the United States for permission to enter United States land, we nonetheless held that, under the totality of the circumstances, the rider had tendered consideration in return for permission to enter for [vehicular riding] purposes within the meaning of the consideration exception to the California recreational use statute. Id. 32 The denial of immunity in the cases we describe comports with the general policy considerations underlying the exception. The consideration exception is not simply a mechanical test to distinguish those recreational use cases that involve direct payments from user to landowner from those that do not. Rather, it is intended to serve more broadly as a proxy for differentiating the entrepreneur-landowner whose land is open for business reasons from the landowner whom the statute encourages to open his land on a gratuitous basis by the promise of immunity. 14 The relevant factor in determining whether to apply the consideration exception is thus not whether the consideration passes directly from user to landowner but rather whether economic benefit inures to the landowner. 33 ECR's failure to make payment on its concession agreement in 1974, the year of the accident, does not affect the result. All of the Users had actually purchased products at the ECR cafe-store in the time period immediately preceding the accident, and all but one had made rental payments to ECR for moorage and trailer spaces. Under the concession agreement the United States was entitled to 1 3/4% of ECR's gross receipts including those payments by the Users. The failure of ECR to make good on its monetary and other contractual obligations to the government, for whatever reasons, is irrelevant. The payments by the Users to ECR, as to which the United States is entitled to a share, constitute consideration in return for permission to recreate in Eldorado Canyon. 34 By holding the consideration exception applicable on the facts of this case, we do not imply that the exception applies to a broader geographic area than that over which the concessionaire has the explicit or implicit power to grant or deny permission to recreate. 15 All three of the Users were killed while in Eldorado Canyon, well within the geographical boundaries of ECR's concession facility. 16 35