Massachusetts Lunacy

The Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") of the Commonwealth outdid itself yesterday. 125 years of precedent out the window: essentially, a property owner is now responsible for any and all snow/ice conditions that may develop on their property -- and as a consequence the injuries suffered by persons legally on their property as a result of the owner's failure to remediate those conditions.

Let me put that another way: it is open season for tort lawyers. Essentially, no matter how reckless or stupid the action of the idiot "legally on your property,"where such action results in injury proximately caused by snow or ice ... you are on the hook.  Worse, it does not matter how the hazardous condition came to be on your property ... the city plow could hammer your driveway or sidewalk with 6 feet of frozen slush (which hardens overnight) and you are responsible, whether you are at home or not.

Even stranger, the municipalities have always been immune -- so it is not some form of officially sanctioned risk shifting. Rather, it appears to be consistent with continuing class warfare: screw those who have (even something as modest as a walk-up 2 family in Dorchester) for the benefit of those poor wights who are proximately damaged by the failure to cope with Mother Nature and the evil intent of the property owner to inflict injury.

We will be able to make the argument of assumption of risk ... but only when the owner has taken all reasonable measures to ensure snow and ice-free passage.  How great should the measures be? Who knows ... ? What is reasonable? I'll tell you one thing, the greedy plaintiff and his attorney will have a vastly different view on what is reasonable than you do. I guarantee it.

Essentially, Massachusetts once again wants to remove responsibility from the individual best able to shoulder it and transfer it someone else. In Massachusetts, there is always someone else to blame.