Trying To Avoid Lawsuit From Neglectful Parents

[Denise31]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

Hi Everybody:

I need some advice on a tricky subject. My neighbors' children, 8 and 4 years old, along with their playmates have lately taken to climbing an eight foot stone wall that is on my neighbors' property, swinging on a tree that's on my property, then landing on a brick patio that my husband and I built and is on our property. I'm not only annoyed, but I'm worried that one of these children will fall off the wall onto our patio, causing one of them to be seriously injured or die.

My questions in this case would be: Could my neighbors' or the playmates' parents sue us if one of children are hurt or killed if they fall onto our patio? If they could, would the fact that the children have never been supervised and have had several near injuries because they wandered by themselves into other neighbors' yards factor into this? This website says if there is any dangerous construction on your property that it should be removed. So, does this mean that the patio we spent two years and several thousand dollars building have to be removed because we wrongly assumed our neighbors would not allow their children to climb this wall? What if I warn the children not to climb the wall and they do it anyway and are injured? Would I still be liable?

Anybody who knows any cases similar to this one or knows what the law is in this case (not necessarily in MA but that would be nice) regarding a neighbor carelessly using their own property that causes them injury or death on another neighbors' property, I'd love to hear from you. Just to know what typically happens in cases like this would help a lot. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Denise

 

[duplexowner]

Very touchy subject

Clearly if someone injures themselves on your property, they have the right to sue, but then its going to get really grey. Removing everything from your property that could cause in some way an injury is impossible, because you can hurt yourself doing or on just about anything. But since you are aware of the situation, you have some responsibility, which I think you'd handled by notifying the parents, notifying the kids, etc. You can't be expected to remove a patio or whole tree because some unsupervised kids may hurt themselves doing something they aren't supposed to be doing inthe first place.

I'd see about trimming the tree in such a way they can no longer swing on it and then see about making some type of police report if it continues, indicating the steps you've taken to stop the kids or avoid injury.