# You are liable if a car crashes into a boulder on your property? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233 "2012-05-17T18:11:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/121 "2018-02-15T07:30:40Z")
> [@biometricks](#): > > I located the property on Zillow and the home was built in 1900, so almost certainly before the road. It was last sold in 1998. And even if the road was there, zoning is a later practice. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/122 "2018-02-15T14:18:09Z")
> [@Chopsticks](#): > > ?Feedback 😕? > > “Ugly paint job, so I had to destroy the house for world peace.” > “Crash was unusually bumpy. Three stars.” > “The boulder was magnetized.” I meant, feedback that the bridge was poorly designed/the house should have been taken by eminent domain and removed, with a guardrail put in, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![supposedly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@supposedly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supposedly)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/123 "2018-02-15T15:04:00Z")
If you people were in charge medieval moats would have been outlawed. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/124 "2018-02-15T17:11:05Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > What law would prevent you from doing so? > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Attractive nuisance? The attractive nuisance doctrine addresses a landowner’s duty to trespassing children. It doesn’t say anything about putting up pointy spikes to deter (presumably) adult cyclists. > [@DrDeth](#): > > But I think that isse may be the stated purpose. > > “I am putting out some nice landscaping including a attractive boulder.” > > “I am putting this boulder here so that people hit it.” That’s [pretty much](https://premisesliability.uslegal.com/duty-owed-trespassers/) it. > [@](#): > > A landowner will owe only a duty of ordinary care when s/he knows that trespassers constantly intrude upon a limited area of the property where the owner either carries on a dangerous activity or has maintained an artificial condition that s/he has reason to know is dangerous and that the danger will not be discovered or appreciated by the intruders[v]. > > It is to be noted that a landowner does not have any obligation to keep his/her premises in a non hazardous state. His/her only duty to a trespasser is to abstain from acts willfully injurious[vi]. The duty of an owner towards a trespasser applies also to personal property. Ordinarily, an owner of property is not bound to anticipate and provide for the presence of trespassers, since s/he may properly assume that they will not enter into the property[vii]. Similarly, an owner or occupant of premises does not owe any duty to trespassers to protect them from perils or hazards on adjoining or neighboring premises over which the possessor has no control. In other words, putting a boulder in a place where the landowner knows it will cause harm because people frequently trespass on that area of the property is legally actionable. Putting up a fence to keep people out is just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/125 "2018-02-15T17:29:32Z")
> [@biometricks](#): > > I located the property on Zillow and the home was built in 1900, so almost certainly before the road. There are numerous homes in PA that were built right up against the road side of the property line back when the ‘road’ was literally a horse & buggy path. Now that the town wants to widen the road &/or realign an intersection they can’t because one or more of the properties are historic; therefore, they can’t just be bought out thru eminent domain & razed. In looking at the current [street view](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7287265,-75.2475947,3a,75y,329.23h,74.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6NTbM7lVkX1kArXi0zhgGQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en), I find it amusing that the bridge across the street has a dedicated & set-off pedestrian sidewalk that goes…nowhere :smack: It ends in the backside of a guardrail. We’re not just talking an ADA non-compliance issue, as I bet a significant portion of the otherwise able-bodied population is not able to navigate over a guardrail. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/126 "2018-02-15T19:57:17Z")
I assume the county administration reasoned “after a few years of high beams shining into their living room all night long they’ll be happy to sell to us for cheap”. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233/127 "2018-02-16T05:02:50Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > In looking at the current [street view](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7287265,-75.2475947,3a,75y,329.23h,74.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6NTbM7lVkX1kArXi0zhgGQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en), I find it amusing that the bridge across the street has a dedicated & set-off pedestrian sidewalk that goes…nowhere :smack: It ends in the backside of a guardrail. We’re not just talking an ADA non-compliance issue, as I bet a significant portion of the otherwise able-bodied population is not able to navigate over a guardrail. The bridge crosses a municipal boundary, so it might be an issue of only one side caring about pedestrian access, with the guardrail side taking the position that they’re not going to do anything to enable access because it’s someone else’s problem if it can’t be used. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-liable-if-a-car-crashes-into-a-boulder-on-your-property/622233.md?page=6)