Business Law 101 / LICENSEES

By Albert L. Kelley, Esq.

Continuing with our series on how to define third parties on property: Today we will discuss Licensees.

A licensee falls between a trespasser and an invitee. It is a person on the property owner’s property who has not been invited, but whose presence is permitted or tolerated. This category includes contractors before they have a formal contract, persons who come onto the property for their own personal business-such as door-to-door salesmen, mail carriers, garbage men, people walking across the property when the business is closed, and invitees who proceed beyond the invited area. The category also includes discovered trespassers who have not been chased off the property, people who come to a business for a reason outside of the business’ main purpose (as an example, a person who enters a store to ask if they could use the store’s phone would be deemed a licensee, not an invitee).

In some places, the distinction between licensee and invitee does not exist. In Florida, however, a property owner has a lesser degree of responsibility to a licensee than they have to an invitee. The property owner must refrain from wanton (def.: showing an utter lack of moderation or justification) negligence or willful misconduct that would injure a person. The owner must avoid intentionally exposing the licensee to danger and must warn of any dangerous or defective conditions that are not open to ordinary observation. Unlike the duty owed to invitees, a property owner has no duty to licensees to keep the premises in a safe condition. They will, however, be responsible for injuries caused when the property owner had actual knowledge of a dangerous condition, realizes that it poses an unreasonable risk to a licensee, has reason to believe the licensee will not either discover the dangerous condition or realize the risk it presents, and yet allows the licensee to enter or remain on the property. While for invitees, an owner was responsible for those dangerous he should have known about, as for licensees, the duty only applies to those dangers the property owner actually knows about. As an example, if a stairwell is rotting in an unobserved area, and a person falls through, the property owner would be liable for the resulting injuries if the injured person was an invitee, but not if the person was a licensee. If a danger is not discoverable, even with frequent inspections, there is no liability for injury to a licensee.

The property owner must warn licensees of dangers that he knows about, but only if those dangers are hidden or are not such that a reasonable person would notice and avoid. If the danger is readily observable, there is no duty to warn and the licensee carries the responsibility to watch for it and take due precautions. A property owner also has no duty to warn if they do not reasonably believe any licensees will be on the property. Licensees may take on a portion of liability based upon their own actions. If the licensee acts in such a way to increase their risk, even with a violation of duty by the property owner, the licensee may be held partially responsible for their injuries.

Al Kelley is a Florida business law attorney located in Key West and previously taught business law, personnel law and labor law at St. Leo University. He is also the author of “Basics of Business Law” and “Basics of Florida’s Small Claims Court” (Absolutely Amazing e-Books). This article is being offered as a public service and is not intended to provide specific legal advice. If you have any questions about legal issues, you should confer with a licensed Florida attorney.

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