Visitors to property are classified according to one’s purpose in entering the property and whether such entry is with the consent of the property’s possessor. The standard of care the possessor must exercise depends on whether the visitor is present (a) without the possessor’s consent, i.e., a trespasser; (b) with the possessor’s consent, i.e., a licensee; or (c) with the possessor’s consent as a member of the public for whom the property is held open or for the possessor’s business, i.e., an invitee.
By statute, the legislature has determined that a “trespasser” is “any person who enters or goes upon the real estate of another without any right, lawful authority or invitation, either expressed or implied, but does not include persons who come within the scope of the ‘attractive nuisance’ doctrine.”
A possessor of land is subject to liability for physical harm to children trespassing thereon caused by an artificial condition upon the land if (a) the place where the condition exists is one upon which the possessor knows or has reason to know that children are likely to trespass, and (b) the condition is one of which the possessor knows or has reason to know and which he realizes or should realize will involve an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to such children, and (c) the children because of their youth do not discover the condition or realize the risk involved in intermeddling with it or in coming within the area made dangerous by it, and (d) the utility to the possessor of maintaining the condition and the burden of eliminating the danger are slight as compared with the risk to children involved, and (e) the possessor fails to exercise reasonable care to eliminate the danger or otherwise to protect the children.
Thus as a business owner, you should be aware that even if uninvited you can be liable for injury to a child if the child was drawn to the premises by an attractive nuisance, ( a pool, a dirt pile, a captured animal kept in a cage on the premises).
Signs posted and fences don’t feed the bulldog if you have an attractive nuisance.