If a Tree Falls and Your Car Is There… 

Who’s Liable?

Generally speaking, the property owner is liable for injuries that happen on their property. So, if you’re parked in the Dairy Queen, enjoying your dilly bar on a hot sunny day, and a tree all of a sudden collapses on your car, that Dairy Queen is probably going to be liable for the damage that you sustained. However, there may be an exception for an act of God. An act of God generally refers to a claim where it’s nature’s fault that the injury happened. If you’re out in a field during a tornado storm and a tornado picks you up and causes you to sustain injury, you probably don’t have anyone to sue—we can’t send a complaint to God or Mother Nature after all. The same may be true for fallen trees: if you’re parked under a tree but it falls because lightning struck it, you may be out of options.

Foreseeability

When it comes to suing the property owner for a felled tree, foreseeability is a key part of the claim: could the property owner have foreseen that the tree was going to fall and cause someone to sustain injury? The reason that it’d be more difficult to file a claim if the tree fell due to a lightning strike is that the property owner never could have foreseen that. Trees can show signs of disease—after all, they don’t normally just collapse out of nowhere. If you have a tree on your property that appears to be at risk of collapsing and doing some serious damage to property, you may have to take some precautions to reduce or completely eliminate the likelihood of a potential accident from occurring.

Reasonable Precautions

If you’ve got a tree on your property that’s at risk of collapsing, you can reduce the chances of having a claim filed against you by taking reasonable precautions. In some cases, this may mean having the tree completely removed from your property. In other cases, trimming the tree and/or treating the disease that the tree has can help prevent the tree from causing someone else to sustain injury. Most of the time, you’ll have to wait a little while before someone can come out to your property and assess the tree. Blocking off the parking spot, using caution tape, and warning guests not to park there, can help you prevent others from sustaining an injury.

Apportioned Liability

Sometimes, it’s pretty obvious that the tree isn’t likely to be standing for much longer, even if you’re on someone else’s property. If you see a shady spot, but the tree standing over it looks like it could collapse at any moment, it might not be the best idea to park there. Some states can apportion liability, which means that multiple parties—including the plaintiff themself—can be liable for causing damages to the plaintiff. This means that a jury could decide that you were partially responsible for your injuries because you should have known that the tree was likely to fall. If this happens, your settlement may be reduced in proportion to the amount of fault you have. In some states, having too much fault can make it impossible for you to win a settlement even if the other party was partially responsible.

When There’s No One There…

When it comes to large swathes of unpopulated land where the landowner may not frequent the land regularly, if ever, they may not know (and would have no ability to know) that there’s a tree on their property that’s going to cause a problem. Furthermore, if you’re injured while trespassing on their property, it’s even less likely that they’re going to be liable for the injuries you’ve sustained. Lastly, this can happen in National Parks and Forests. However, in these cases, the government may be liable, but they’re not likely to face a lawsuit due to governmental immunity.

If You’ve Sustained Injury

If you’ve sustained injury and you have questions about filing a premises liability claim, contact Moxie Law Group for a free consultation. At Moxie Law Group, our attorneys are dedicated to helping you get the compensation you need to recover from the injuries you’ve sustained due to the negligence of another person. If you have been injured, and you have questions, Moxie Law Group is here for you. Contact us today to get started with your free consultation.