Philly Jogger Killed By Falling Tree Branch - Who May Be Responsible For This Tragedy
Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 23-year old Mary Katherine Ladany who was struck and killed by a large tree branch while jogging in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA on the evening of August 5th. According to news sources, it appears that Ms. Ladany was listening to her iPod while jogging and may not have heard a 30-foot long branch fall from a tulip tree, also known as Poplar.
In 1980, I handled one of my first significant injury and damage cases involving a decayed tree on a Philadelphia residential property that fell and crushed a center city real estate agent. Cases dealing with the liability of property owners for damages caused by falling trees can be quite complicated. The Restatement 2nd of Torts notes “a possessor of land in an urban area is subject to liability related to persons using a public highway for physical harm resulting from his or her failure to exercise reasonable care to prevent an unreasonable risk of harm arising from a condition of trees on the land near the highway.” The results of the proposition that holds that a land owner or property owner may be liable if he has actual or constructive notice that the tree is in a decayed condition or in fact, there is an alteration to a natural condition that creates a hazard to innocent persons or passersby on adjacent property. In general, the owner of the land located in or adjacent to an urban residential area has a duty of reasonable care to prevent defective trees from posing a hazard and resulting catastrophic injury or wrongful death to others on adjacent land. Therefore, it follows that the possessor or owner of the urban residential land who has actual or constructive notice of the defective tree has an affirmative duty to take corrective action to protect the plaintiff on the adjacent land.
