Tort Terms

Brien Roche

Licensees are social guests.  This concept is important in premises liability cases.

Examples of Licensees

For instance, if  you invite someone to your home for a party that guest is a licensee.  The duty that is owed to a licensee is similar to what is owed to an invitee. Although there is some distinction made in the case law.  The occupier of land is liable to a licensee for injuries caused by conditions on the premises. This applies to conditions the owner knew or should have known of.  Where  a dangerous condition exists and the owner or occupier knows or has reason to know that the guests do not know and have no  reason to know of that condition, then The property owner or occupier has a duty to exercise reasonable care to make the premises safe. The property owner may also have a duty to warn the social guests of the condition.

The distinction between the duty owed by a property owner to a licensee as opposed to an invitee is unclear. The duty to both is reasonable care. Reasonable care is a question that will be submitted to the jury for a decision. That is whether you as the property owner acted in a reasonable fashion will be decided by the jury. On occasion the judge may make that decision as a matter of law. The rationale being that if the jury decides the case then there is complete record for the appellate court to review on appeal.

More Information on Licensees

For more info on licensees and other premises liability related topics see the other pages on this site.
For more info on licensees see the pages on Wikipedia.