Court Opinion

ID: 9513582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:38:05.862018+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:55.326541
License: Public Domain

MARING, Justice,
specially concurring.
[¶ 25] Although I concur in the result, I write separately because I disagree with the majority opinion’s conclusion that the primary purpose of the recreational use immunity statutes has not changed since their original enactment in 1965. The majority does acknowledge that when the recreational use statutes were first enacted the purpose was to encourage private landowners to open their lands for recreational use by the public by removing the potential for liability. 1965 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 337. However, when the Legislature changed the definition of land in N.D.C.C. § 53-08-01 to include public land as well as private land, I am of the opinion the focus of the statutes changed. The majority of the public lands which the public would be using for recreational purposes are already lands open for recreational use to the public. Some of these public lands are open to the public for a fee and some for free. The focus is no longer on “opening” lands for recreational purposes, but rather on limiting liability of a landowner to a person who enters the owner’s property to engage in a recreational activity. Perhaps it is more accurate to state that the goal of the legislation, as it applies to public lands is to prevent the “closing” of public lands which have been used primarily for recreational purposes in the aftermath of the abolishment of sovereign immunity. Bulman v. Hulstrand Const. Co., Inc., 521 N.W.2d 632 (N.D.1994). In my opinion, there is a close correspondence between the classification and the Legislature’s goal of continuing to make public lands available for free recreational use.
[¶ 26] I also disagree with the majority’s conclusions that “[l]ike skiing, winter sledding has many inherent risks and dangers” and that “[v]oluntary participants in sporting and recreational activities are presumed to have consented, by their participation, to those injury-causing events which are known, apparent, or reasonably foreseeable consequences of the participation.” In this case, there was no issue whether Olson was engaged in a recreational activity, and I consider these statements nothing but dicta.
[¶ 27] MARY MUEHLEN MARING.