November 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 30

L AW R E V I E W

Traditional Municipal Immunity
for Community Parks
By James C. Kozlowski

T

he law of personal injury liability is a creature of state law with a wide
variety of jurisdictional statutory and judicially created variations, including the scope and availability of limited governmental immunity for public parks and recreation. One such jurisdictional variation reflects ancient English
common-law principles, i.e., the judgments and decrees of court over generations,
which formed the historic basis for general legal principles in the United States. Under the common law, the sovereign state enjoyed absolute governmental immunity
from negligence liability. Municipalities, however, did not enjoy absolute immunity.
On the contrary, municipalities were only immune for governmental functions, i.e.,
those inherent state police powers that embody the government's fundamental legal
obligation to preserve the general public health, safety and welfare. Municipalities,
however, were not immune from liability for proprietary functions, i.e., when acting like a private business on their own behalf and/or for the benefit of their own
citizens. When injuries arose from a proprietary function, municipalities could be
held liable like a private individual for negligence.
Traditionally, public parks were
considered an immune governmental
function. However, in response to tax-

28

Parks & Recreation

payer calls for " government to be run
like a business, " community park and
recreation departments have had to

| N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

generate their own revenues as an increasing percentage of their budgets. In
adding more revenue-based programs,
facilities and activities, the line between
immune governmental functions to
preserve public welfare and nonimmune proprietary functions to provide
public benefits has become less and less
distinct. As a result, many jurisdictions
have replaced the common law of governmental immunity with state statutes
that more clearly define the availability
and scope of limited immunity for public parks and recreation.
For example, the Virginia state legislature enacted a public recreation
immunity statute following a 1939
decision by the Virginia Supreme
Court, which had held that a munic-



November 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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