Spring has sprung and it is bluebonnet season here in the Lone Star State! Texans love our bluebonnets and many folks make yearly pilgrimages to take photographs with the official state flower. This can cause anxiety for some landowners who may be concerned about their potential liability for trespassers on their land. Under Texas law, the only duty that a landowner owes to a trespasser is not to intentionally injure that person or to act with “gross negligence.” For liability purposes, any person who enters the property without… Read More →

I recently wrote an article for Progressive Cattleman discussing the importance of landowners being aware of the various landowner liability statutes that exist in their state. All 50 states have at least one (most states have multiple) statute that offers limited liability to landowners in the event someone is injured on their property, so long as certain requirements are met.  The National Agricultural Law Center has a collection of various statutes for each state in their Reading Room.  For those of you in Texas, I published a legal… Read More →

Since I wrote a blog post several months ago outlining the newly enacted Texas Agritourism Act, I have gotten a flurry of questions from folks across the state related to the Act’s protection and application.  I thought I would take the time to answer a few of these questions today. Where can I find more information about the Agritourism Act? To read a prior blog post I wrote discussing the basics of the Agritourism Act, click here.  To read a more in depth legal discussion of landowner liability statues (including the… Read More →

Recently, I had the honor of speaking at the 10th Annual John Huffaker Agricultural Law Course.  This event, put on by the Texas State Bar, is a continuing education event for attorneys.  My task was to provide an overview of limited liability statutes in Texas.  Three statutes (Recreational Use Statute, Agritourism Act, and Farm Animal liability Act) offer limited liability to Texas landowners if the requirements are met.  It is critical that Texas landowners be aware of these statutes and seek to comply to protect their operations in… Read More →

My very first assignment as a summer associate at a law firm was to look into whether our client, a rancher, could be held liable where dust from his property blew across the highway causing decreased visibility and a car accident ensued.  This same question was included in the Top 10 Things Agricultural Lawyers Should Know presentation by John Huffaker and David LeBas at the Texas Ag Law Course in 2015. It is an interesting and important issue for Texas landowners.  The answer, like so many legal answers, is not… Read More →

As was briefly mentioned in this prior legislative recap post, Texas now has a new statute offering liability protection for agritourism operations.  The Act, carried as SB 610 and now codified as Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 75A, offers important protections of which landowners need to be aware.   The statute provides that an “agritourism entity” is not liable to any person for injury or damages to an “agritourism participant” if: (1) the required signage is posted; or (2) a written agreement containing required language is obtained. Let’s… Read More →