LITIGATIONRESULTS - Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC

WHD Obtains Summary
Judgment for Local Festival:
Court Applies Wisconsin’s
Recreational Immunity Statute
to Public Sidewalk
schmidt
WHD obtained summary judgment in favor of its client, a local ethnic festival.
The plaintiffs, a married couple, had attended mass at the festival and
departed shortly thereafter. They exited the festival and, in returning to their
car, walked on a public sidewalk along the perimeter of the Maier Festival
Grounds. About 10-15 minutes after leaving the festival and while walking
on the sidewalk, an unexpected gust of wind blew over a large A-frame sign,
which was owned and placed on the sidewalk by the festival to identify the
entrance to the festival’s parking lot. The sign knocked the wife to the ground.
She sustained severe injuries, incurring $155,000 in medical expenses and
likely needing a knee replacement in the future as a result of the injuries.
Under Wisconsin’s recreational immunity statute, a nonprofit organization (like
the festival) that “owns, leases or occupies property” or has a recreational
agreement with another owner of property does not owe a duty to keep the
property safe for recreational activities; inspect the property; or warn of an
unsafe condition, use, or activity on the property to persons entering the
property to engage in a recreational activity. A person who is injured while
engaging in a “recreational activity” on the owner’s property cannot hold
the owner liable for the injury. WHD convinced the court that although the
festival did not “own or lease” the public sidewalk, it “occupied” the sidewalk
by virtue of placing the sign on it. Additionally, WHD persuaded the court
that the couple was still engaged in a recreational activity at the time of the
accident despite the fact that they had departed the festival because the act
of returning to their vehicle was inextricably linked to the recreational activity of
attending the festival.
Litigation Type: Premises liability/personal injury
Court: Milwaukee County Circuit Court
Lead WHD Counsel: Pamela Schmidt
Principal WHD Team Members: Pamela Schmidt, Barbara Zabawa,
Nida Shakir (summer associate), Pamela Price (paralegal)
Practice Areas Involved: Personal Injury Defense
LITIGATION RESULTS 33