“With great power comes great responsibility”- yes, that’s good advice to Spiderman’s Toby Maguire but equally sound advice to Oregon and Washington homeowners. Oregon and Washington homeowners must ensure that they provide a safe injury free environment for young children and adults that may come onto their property to receive a piece of candy.

Homeowners by common and case law are made responsible to provide their invited guests a safe environment for people including children trick or treaters that are invited upon their property. In fact, in the invited guest (by defacto situation like Halloween) where the homeowners are inviting guests, the homeowner may even have an affirmative duty to inspect their own property for dangerous conditions which could injure young trick or treaters with images of sweets dancing in their minds.

Commonplace injuries to children and even adults when going upon a homeowners property may included compound fractures from falls, scrapes, facial contusions, cheek orbital fractures, facial scaring and even dog bites from dogs on the property.

Injuries to young children and adults in Oregon and Washington can be caused from any or more of the following household conditions which could be avoided with simple inspection of the yard as part of a regularly scheduled home maintenance program. They may include: slippery accumulation of leaves, broken beer bottles, upturned sidewalks, holes in tree lawns where a tree used to be, uncovered water connection boxes in the tree lawn area, hoses or kids toys strewn about ready for a tripping hazard. All of the forgoing homeowner property shortfalls are hazards which homeowners have a moral ethical and legal obligation to prevent.

Of course the tree lawn area in most urban lots in Oregon and Washington is a public right of way so homeowners have a legal obligation to ensure it is free from hazards. Here’s to a safe and hazard free fall and our upcoming Halloween season.