united-states liability negligence
Homeowner&#39;s liability for a social guest injured by a danger unknown to the homeowner
<p>P is a social guest, hence a licensee. A flowerpot fell from the balcony and injured P. Is the homeowner liable to P?  Suppose that the homeowner claims that she was not aware of the danger.</p>
<p>Jurisdiction: the US, common law.</p>

<p>The facts of the flower pot would determine the outcome. The legal question is whether the owner was &quot;negligent&quot;. A claim of ignorance is insufficient, what matters is whether the owner departed from what an ordinary reasonable person would have done in similar circumstances. You can write dozens of scenarios that yield different conclusions. For example, was the area underneath the flower pot a place where no reasonable person would be expected to be? Did some other person surreptitiously place the pot in a location, or did they release the moorings and give it a shove? How is it credible that the owner was not aware that there was a flower pot on the balcony? <em>Res ipsa loquitur</em> is not applicable since accidents happen. Things fall all the time, they do not necessarily fall because of something that the person directly controls, you have not proven (and we can't assume) that the victim is blameless, and the defendants explanation is quite plausible. You can of course rewrite the scenario to make it clearer that this is blatant negligence. A starting point would be to say exactly how the pot fell and why the victim was under the pot.</p>
