An attractive nuisance is something that is going to draw a person’s attention. It’s been said that it has a “wow factor,” especially when it comes to teens and children. It’s something that they find interesting and that they may be curious about.
There are a lot of different examples of how this could look. Swimming pools are perhaps cited most often, but it could also be something like a collection of power tools or a construction project. It’s something that has inherent danger, but that is out of the norm, so people will be influenced to approach it, and then they could be hurt.
Does trespassing matter?
One thing that people often say as a defense is that the person who was injured should not have been on the property in the first place. They were trespassing.
For instance, maybe a young child saw a backyard pool and wandered onto the property in the middle of the day. No one was home to give them permission to be there. They were discovered later after they had fallen in the full pool and passed away. The homeowner may say that what happened is tragic, but it’s not their fault because they weren’t there and they didn’t tell the child they could go in the pool to start with.
This argument may work in some situations, as long as the homeowner did enough to try to make the attractive nuisance safe. For example, if there was no fence or a locking gate around the pool, then the homeowner may still be liable. The young child who fell in did not understand trespassing and didn’t fully grasp the danger they were putting themselves in.
If you have lost a loved one in such an event, you may want to consider your legal options.
