On the morning of June 21st of 2010, two women were attacked by a swarm of bees while playing a round of golf at a local Gilbert golf course. One woman was stung around 50 times, while the other was stung about 20.
Thankfully,
neither of the women were allergic to the stings and were able to
drive themselves to the hospital for observation from the attacks.The Gilbert Golf Club dismantled the hive once it was located on their grounds.
These situations are unfortunate but happen more often then you think. More recently in August, a Casa Grande Apartment Complex was swarmed with bees and ended up stinging 7 tenants total in June. With cases occuring like this almost on a monthly basis, many victims of the accidents wonder what legal ramifications may arise from these events.
Legal
ramifications? From bees? How can that possibly be? Don’t the bees
pretty much govern themselves? How can there be legal liability for
something like this?
Isn’t this lawsuit system out of control?
Many
factors come into play when a situation like this occurs. The simple
and short answers are that there is quite possibly no legal liability
when something like this occurs---unless, there is.
Questions:
Did the Gilbert Golf Club know that the hive existed on its property?
Had the bees stung others on the course previously?
If so, did the Gilbert Golf Club do anything about the problem?
Were there any efforts to remove the hive?
At minimum, were any measures taken to warn guests about the situation and the dangers involved?
When
you are running a business, and people are paying you money for your
products or services, the law says that the business owner had legal
duties to it’s customers.
If you know a dangerous condition exists, remedy it, safeguard it, or at minimum warn your guests about it.If the guests thereafter assume the risk, then perhaps you have done all you can.
But
if you know about it, say nothing (in the interest of profit) and an
injury occurs? I think we all agree that the law is right in imposing
legal liability on that business owner.
So, maybe the “bees just being bees” isn’t the whole story. Maybe an investigation will prove otherwise. You decide.
