March 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 32

Law rEviEw continued from page 29

edge. However, even assuming that the
particular risk at the cliff's edge-the
alleged crumbling of a large section of
the cliff-was not necessarily foreseeable, the general risk of a cliff's edge is.

Further, the state supreme court found
the " existence of past injuries at the cliffs
in Cameron Park " did not necessarily

establish the " likelihood of harm at a
cliff's edge " which occurred in this particular case. On the contrary, the court
noted that none of the past injuries at
the cliffs in Cameron Park " appeared to
have involved a large piece of earth falling from a cliff as allegedly happened in
this case, or even a rock fall in general. "

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2 0 1 2    w w w . N R P A . O R G

In the opinion of the state supreme
court, it would generally be " unreasonable and unduly burdensome to ask a
landowner to seek out every naturally
occurring condition that might be dangerous and then warn of the condition or
make it safe. " Accordingly, the state supreme court held " a landowner generally
owes no duty where a claim is premised
on an injury caused by a naturally occurring condition. " Moreover, the court
found a landowner is generally not grossly negligent to protect or warn against the
dangers of natural conditions on the land
under the state RUS.
Moreover, in this particular instance,
the state supreme court found evidence of
reasonable care under the circumstances, specifically, the City's construction
of a wall and the posting of a prominent
sign in front of the cliff stating, " FOR YOUR
SAFETY DO NOT GO BEYOND WALL. "
Even assuming that the City owed McGehee a duty, which we hold today that
it did not, and assuming that the City
knew of an " extreme degree of risk, "
we fail to see how the City showed
" conscious indifference to the rights,
safety, or welfare of others " as required [to establish liability] under the
[state recreational] use statute...
The wall and sign do not indicate
simply " some evidence of care. " Instead, the wall provided a barrier in
front of the cliff to prevent patrons from
accessing the cliff's edge, and the sign
warned patrons to stay away from the
cliff by instructing them not to go beyond the wall.

In so doing, the state supreme court rejected Kirwan's contention that " the sign
was inadequate in that it failed to identify the
particular hazard applicable to this case,
namely the risk of fatality resulting from the
condition of the Cameron Park premises. "
We do not intend to discourage landowners from posting detailed warning
signs where necessary, but a barrier
and a sign warning a recreational user
to stay away from a dangerous natural
condition generally will be sufficient to
avoid a showing of " conscious indifference to the rights, safety, and welfare of
others " under the statute.
March 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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