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Invitee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.(August 2007) |
In the law of torts, an invitee is a person who is invited to land by the possessor of the land as a member of the public, or one who's invited to the land for the purpose of business dealings with the possessor of the land. The status of a visitor as an invitee (as opposed to a trespasser or a licensee) defines the legal rights of the visitor if they are injured due to the negligence of the property owner.
The property owner has a duty to make the property safe for the invitee, which includes conducting a reasonable inspection of the premises to uncover hidden dangers. The property owner also has a duty to warn the invitee of hazardous conditions that can not be fixed. Furthermore, property owners assume a duty to rescue an invitee who falls into peril while visiting the property. If an independent contractor hired by the landowner injures an invitee (intentionally or through negligence), the owner can be held vicariously liable. This represents the broadest duty of care owed to any class of visitors to the property.
It should be noted that a property owner who selectively limits entry to the property - to paying customers, to a set number of people, or even in a discriminatory fashion - is nonetheless opening the property to invitees,[clarify] so long as the property owner holds the property open to some segment of the general public.