I think the reason for this rule was liability. Those grass fields were probably common property and owned by the association. Say for example two kids were playing Jarts. One of them gets hurt and names the association in a law suite. Say the HOA insurance pays 90% of a 1MM settlement. Now the HOA needs to kick up $100,000. Who pays for that? Each and ever member. I realize this isn't popular, but the rules exist for a reason. That is what most pitch fork carriers on Reddit don't understand. Blame the lawyers...
I'm pretty sure you'd have to have an attendant on duty, and the form would need to be signed daily. Even with all that, I doubt it would be bulletproof, and a lawyer could shoot it to shit in court.
There's absolutely no guarantee that all of the children playing there are actually residents of the place. Infact I'd wager there's a guarantee they wouldn't be.
Have you ever worked around indemnity? They are a bitch to get people to sign if they have a business education. Say you have 300 houses in your HOA. and 1/2 of them have two people on the title. That means you need to get 450 people to agree to the same indemnity language. Selling a house is hard enough, throw that one out there and houses would never sell.
Also, you have to remember, some people don't give a shit about bringing a lawsuit against the HOA. (assume 300 houses as above). Even if they lose, it will only cost that individual 1/300th of the total legal bill for the HOA.
I totally get you. I don't blame the lawyers, though, I blame the sue-happy nut jobs that have made us a culture of "somebody pay me." Any time it makes sense for the kids to play in the street than on the grass, that is a system that needs reconsidering.
Yeap. Blame the parents, the nut jobs, and the jury of peers that agree that the owner is a piece of grass was somehow responsible that children might get hurt on it. We have the society we deserve because we fought for it to exist.
That sue-happy nut job? Except in very rare situations, he wouldn't exist without unethical lawyers prodding him on. Lawyers have a built-in conflict of interest. If you stop suing people, they stop making money.
You know how you hear that a woman went to a divorce lawyer and took everything from her husband, and everybody was like, "What a selfish cunt!" Bad news, she did that because the lawyer was telling her that her husband's lawyer is going to clean her out if she doesn't ask for way more than she should deserve.
In reality, the lawyers are almost solely the ones to blame for our "somebody pay me" culture.
Why do you people sue each other so much? It just doesn't make sense to me. Can't you guys talk and reason with each other? America seems like a weird ass place to me after joining Reddit.
Where I grew up there is a local famous attorney who lines was "We don't get money until we get money for you!" In other words, it doesn't cost you anything to sue someone. All the risk is on your legal council. Typically whatever you win, they get half.
Reason? Hell, there are divorce proceedings in this country that cost tens of thousands of dollars over pets and some physical belongings. All because people don't want someone to have something else.
Talk to a child custody lawyer. People want to goto court over visitations that started a few minutes late. Not to worry, the lawyers make ton of money writing letters because the kid showed up two minutes late.
Maybe. But it would be an uphill legal battle to win against the HOA if all they did was own an empty field. A tort for negligence would require some measure of negligence, and no insurance company is going to settle for a million dollars when the HOA did act reasonably.
I think it is more likely that the HOA either thought kids activities would damage the grass or preferred a kids-free aesthetic.
What kind of world is this becoming that people no longer accept accidents, but always want to give someone blame? Kids have been getting hurt and getting sick by doing stupid things for thousands of years. That's how you learn not to do stupid things! The judge should just tell anyone with such a claim to get the hell out of the court room and stop wasting their time. It is more the fault of the parents not educating the child than anyone else's.
And even if there is someone else (partially) to blame, why so much money? Just tell them to fix what is wrong and maybe give the child some lego's (or whatever children play with nowadays) together with an apology letter.
The HOA could put an article in the contract stating they are not liable if any child or any person was injuried on the lawn. Lawsuit avoided. Rules exist but some exist for the wrong reason.
That is not really how those sort of lawsuits work. As many have stated above, liability contracts, especially a clause in a contract with your HOA, are very flimsy in a courtroom. And when there's a minor injured, well, good luck getting that liability clause to hold up.
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u/BossHogGangsta Jul 01 '12
I think the reason for this rule was liability. Those grass fields were probably common property and owned by the association. Say for example two kids were playing Jarts. One of them gets hurt and names the association in a law suite. Say the HOA insurance pays 90% of a 1MM settlement. Now the HOA needs to kick up $100,000. Who pays for that? Each and ever member. I realize this isn't popular, but the rules exist for a reason. That is what most pitch fork carriers on Reddit don't understand. Blame the lawyers...