Restore Liability Protection for Municipalities

On the trailCFPA has advocated for many years that municipalities should emphasize the multiple benefits of getting people outdoors and worry less about issues like liability. Sadly, the May 2010 jury verdict of $2.9 million for a mountain biker who was injured at the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) Reservoir in West Hartford reminds us why towns are often consulting with attorneys before opening recreational facilities.

More about Protecting CT Trails

*Restore Liability Protection for Municipalities Position Paper

*Business and Organizational Supporters 

*www.saveourcttrails.org

*Huge Turn Out for MDC Lands Meeting (July 2010)

*Close the Liability Loophole, Not the MDC Trails (June 2010)

Since 1971, our state's Recreational Liability Statute has been extremely successful at protecting private landowners (individuals, corporations, nonprofits, and private utilities) against liability as long as they do not charge a fee to access their land. This Statute has been essential when we are talking with private landowners who host Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails on their properties. The MDC also hosts approximately 12 miles of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails (the Metacomet/New England Trail and the Tunxis Trail), but they clearly do not share the same protection as private landowners.

As it turns out, municipalities once were protected under the Recreational Liability Statute. However, this protection was lost in 1996 through the Conway v. Wilton case where the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld the right of a private individual to sue a municipality when she sustained a leg injury while competing in a high school tennis tournament on a public tennis court in Wilton. Since the Wilton case, there have been dozens of bills introduced to restore strong liability protection to municipalities. Each time this has been attempted over the past 15 years, the bills were defeated in the General Assembly largely due to opposition from trial lawyers.

CFPA appreciates the significance of this issue for all municipalities, including the MDC—itself being a nonprofit municipal corporation that shares the legal status of a town. As a result, we are asking the General Assembly to leverage the strong public interest in this case into fixing the Recreational Liability Statute for municipalities once and for all.

** To learn more, join GREAT (Grassroots Recreation Email Action Team) by clicking here, entering your email address, selecting the Advocacy/GREAT email list button, and submiting your information.