"Newps" wrote in message
...


Jeff wrote:


What is sad is that having a private field SHOULDN'T leave you open to
any liability (short of advertising an airfield and digging a ditch down
the middle to intentionally cause accidents). Short of something that
nuts, why would you as a property owner be liable if I can't control my
airplane? Lawyers suck.


Here in Montana the legislature this year ammended an existing law that
now says an owner of a private airport cannot be sued if a pilot crashes
on this private airport. As long as it is a non commercial aircraft
operation the airport owner is untouchable. Now the airport owner no
longer has to have you sign a release in advance to protect himself.

Thanks, I was wondering if some State had done something like this. I'll
have to search the net and see if Washington State has done something
similar.

On a similar note: Washington State did pass a law several years ago that
says that horse-riding is an inherently dangerous activity, and the horse
owner can't be held liable if someone falls off the person's horse (or words
to that effect). I know this because a friend of mine had a horse for sale,
a woman came out to "test drive" it, fell off, was seriously hurt and sued
him (just after the law took effect). It turns out the woman had made a
career off of doing this, and didn't know about the new law. However, this
time (unlike the previous times) she was seriously hurt (partial paralysis,
IIRC) and couldn't collect. My friend's insurance company did pay her $10K
just to go away, but she suffered BIG TIME. There is a God! ;^)