can my neighbor or a guest at their house sue me if they slipped and fell (injured) because the nuts from my trees fall in their driveway ?
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can my neighbor or a guest at their house sue me if they slipped and fell (injured) because the nuts from my trees fall in their driveway ?
Asked on March 16, 2012 under Personal Injury, North Carolina
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
It is very unlikely that you could be successfully sued on this basis. For you to be liable, you must be at fault; for their to be fault, there must be negligence, or unreasonable carelessness. Generally speaking, there is nothing unreasonable about not cleaning up nuts that fall from a tree, and so therefore no liability for failing to do so.
That is as a general matter. It is possible that circumstances exist which would result in liability--for example, previous injuries caused by the nuts, which could put you on notice that they are unusually dangerous for some reason and must be cleaned up. That is not the typical situation, but it is possible, so if you are sued, take it seriously and retain an attorney to defend you.
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