Opinion ID: 1806613
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Purpose of the Recreational Use Statutes

Text: The stated goal of the Recreational Use Statutes is to encourage owners of land to make land and water areas available to the public for recreational purposes by limiting their liability toward persons entering thereon for such purposes. § 2795. If a suitable tract is properly dedicated to one or more of the specified recreational purposes, the landowner or occupier's exposure to liability to a person who enters or uses the premises for such a recreational purpose is drastically limited. In such cases, the owner owes no duty of care to keep the premises safe or to give warnings of hazards, use, structure or activity on the premises. However, there is no limitation of liability for willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, structure, use or activity, or for injury when the premises are used as a commercial recreational development or facility or used primarily for a commercial, recreational enterprise for profit. §§ 2791; 2795. In enacting § 2795, the legislature adopted, essentially without change, a model act presented by the Council of State Governments through its annual publication, Suggested State Legislation. The purpose of the model act was explained in its accompanying commentary: Suggested State Legislation PUBLIC RECREATION ON PRIVATE LANDS: LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY Recent years have seen a growing awareness of the need for additional recreational areas to serve the general public. The acquisition and operation of outdoor recreational facilities by governmental units is on the increase. However, large acreages of private land could add to the outdoor recreation resources available. Where the owners of private land suitable for recreational use make it available on a business basis, there may be little reason to treat such owners and the facilities they provide in any way different from that customary for operators of private enterprises. However, in those instances where private owners are willing to make their land available to members of the general public without charge, it is possible to argue that every reasonable encouragement should be given to them. In something less than one-third of the states, legislation has been enacted limiting the liability of private owners who make their premises available for one or more public recreational uses. This is done on the theory that it is not reasonable to expect such owners to undergo the risks of liability for injury to persons and property attendant upon the use of their land by strangers from whom the accomodating owner receives no compensation or other favor in return. The suggested act which follows is designed to encourage availability of private lands by limiting the liability of owners to situations in which they are compensated for the use of their property and to those in which injury results from malicious or willful acts of the owner. In the case of lands leased to states or their political subdivisions for recreational purposes, the legislation expressly provides that the owner will have no remaining liability to recreationists, except as such liability may be incorporated in an agreement, or unless the owner is compensated for the use of the land in addition to consideration for the lease. The Council of State Governments, Public Recreation on Private Lands: Limitations on Liability, XXIV Suggested State Legislation 150 (1965) (Emphasis added). There is nothing to indicate that the legislature had a different purpose in adopting § 2791. The Recreational Use Statutes are therefore designed to induce the owners or occupiers of large acreages of private land to open them up for one or more public recreational purposes, as defined in the acts, without compensation or other favor in return, by limiting the liability of such owners to recreational users to situations in which injury results from malicious or willful acts of the owner.