Got To Thinking About Something

[DirtTime]

Yeah I know................. 

This is actually a serious question.

 

I read a a lot on here about how many hunters are subject to hunting pretty small parcels of public land with roads and hiking trails all over the place. I hunt one area like that, small and roads on all sides.

Say you shoot a deer and either it runs a bit or it's a bad shot and runs for a long ways. What's the legal standing if the deer you shot runs into a road and causes an accident, or in the highly populated hiking areas it crashed into a hiker and hurts them.

So my question...........

Are we as hunters liable for damages? 

Edited January 9, 2017 by ....rob
spelling

[SmokeinTN]

Great question,need a lawyer to answer this one.

[growalot]

It is completely out of the hunters control where a deer runs after a hit...just as it is if a hiker were to spook a deer on a trail walk and it goes to run over,trampling  a hunter,biker,or someone's kid....No liability

Edited January 9, 2017 by growalot

[Paula]

14 minutes ago, growalot said:

It is completely out of the hunters control where a deer runs after a hit...just as it is if a hiker were to spook a deer on a trail walk and it goes to run over,trampling  a hunter,biker,or someone's kid....No liability

One would think. Seems like the norm is to sue someone over some crazy accident. For instance, parents are suing Apple because their daughter was on phone illegally while driving

[DirtTime]

22 minutes ago, growalot said:

It is completely out of the hunters control where a deer runs after a hit...just as it is if a hiker were to spook a deer on a trail walk and it goes to run over,trampling  a hunter,biker,or someone's kid....No liability

Not so sure about that anymore growie. Times are changing.

12 minutes ago, Paula said:

One would think. Seems like the norm is to sue someone over some crazy accident. For instance, parents are suing Apple because their daughter was on phone illegally while driving

That's exactly why I asked Paula. If someone tries to break into your home, falls and cuts themselves on the broken glass from the window they broke, they can sue and win. 100's or maybe even thousands of cases just like that.

 

Seeing more and more people seem to be encountering anti-hunters on public land, and even private land, it just got me thinking some of the "what if's" .

[Lawdwaz]

That would be the least of my worries. 

Make a good shot and there's NO worries.

[Rattler]

24 minutes ago, ....rob said:

Not so sure about that anymore growie. Times are changing.

That's exactly why I asked Paula. If someone tries to break into your home, falls and cuts themselves on the broken glass from the window they broke, they can sue and win. 100's or maybe even thousands of cases just like that.

There may be cases, but they won't win.  You can not sue for injury, in any state, while you were in the process of committing a crime.  A homeowner can only be sued for shooting or harming someone when they stopped trying to commit a crime and tried to flee.

Otherwise people would be breaking into homes and hurting themselves for a living.

 

[Paula]

If you start worrying about this now you wont hunt this season. I am sure it will be fine

[Lawdwaz]

My VERY best archery stand (many deer have been killed from it by me) is within 75 yards of a hardtop road.  I've had a few make it across the road, and I was wishing they would have been hit by a car to shorten my tracking job...............

Edited January 9, 2017 by Lawdwaz

[DirtTime]

50 minutes ago, Rattler said:

There may be cases, but they won't win.  You can not sue for injury, in any state, while you were in the process of committing a crime.  A homeowner can only be sued for shooting or harming someone when they stopped trying to commit a crime and tried to flee.

Otherwise people would be breaking into homes and hurting themselves for a living.

 

There are cases where a criminal sued and won, not hard to look that one up. Here's just one from the side winded media everyone here loves so much:

http://lawnewz.com/crazy/convicted-burglar-sues-homeowner-who-shot-him/

 

50 minutes ago, Paula said:

If you start worrying about this now you wont hunt this season. I am sure it will be fine

Oh I'm not worried, this won't hinder my hunting at all. Was just something I thought about. At least it's some political crapola or just fat out depressing.

[grampy]

I'd just stick to thinking about hunting.

[stubby68]

A couple of years a guy was bow hunting in Bliss. He hit a deer about 80 yards in off the road. Deer ran across road was hit by a guy driving home from work. The insurance of the guy driving the car paid for it. The driver tried to sue saying deer would never have been in road if the hunter had never shot it. He was told (as grow said) hunter has no control over where deer runs just as a hiker would not. Act of nature. If he had not shot deer it still could have crossed road. Deer are wild animals no control over where they go. Not like cows or other domesticated animals that are fenced in.

[chas0218]

12 hours ago, ....rob said:

Yeah I know................. 

This is actually a serious question.

 

I read a a lot on here about how many hunters are subject to hunting pretty small parcels of public land with roads and hiking trails all over the place. I hunt one area like that, small and roads on all sides.

Say you shoot a deer and either it runs a bit or it's a bad shot and runs for a long ways. What's the legal standing if the deer you shot runs into a road and causes an accident, or in the highly populated hiking areas it crashed into a hiker and hurts them.

So my question...........

Are we as hunters liable for damages? 

I would get out of the stand and head home. Not sure if you would be at fault but I sure wouldn't want to find out.

[Five Seasons]

12 hours ago, growalot said:

It is completely out of the hunters control where a deer runs after a hit...just as it is if a hiker were to spook a deer on a trail walk and it goes to run over,trampling  a hunter,biker,or someone's kid....No liability

I like your thought, but a spooked deer and a death run are very different scenarios where 1 is intentional, the other accidental. Also the death run is an animal with literally no sense or logic on its mind.

I hunt smaller patches of woods, but if I was that close to a road or park I'd be a little cautious, and not just because what Rob posted about, but recovery rights and other issues.

[growalot]

Both cases are a wild animal running from a perceived danger...a death run is what we people call.it...Deer have no concept their running is due to being shot or spooked. All they know is the instinct to run from danger,it could have been a falling limb for all they know. Both cases a human caused the run because of their activity...Both activities being allowed by the state . Now if you were to say a hiker can be successfully sued, I'd agree a hunter could be as well.....Let's say highly doubtful.

[growalot]

Let me  amend the above statement. Successfully sued. We all know law suits can and are filed that are frivolous. These done with the hopes of a good insurance settlement and nothing more. That said Even insurance companies are now looking for a  convictions of some sort before considering any such law suits as ones they'd attempt to " settle"

[WNYBuckHunter]

14 hours ago, Paula said:

One would think. Seems like the norm is to sue someone over some crazy accident. For instance, parents are suing Apple because their daughter was on phone illegally while driving

You can file all the lawsuits you want for whatever you want. Doesnt mean you will win, or that the court will even hear the case.

[Paula]

I know that. :-)

Edited January 9, 2017 by Paula

[Rattler]

14 hours ago, ....rob said:

There are cases where a criminal sued and won, not hard to look that one up. Here's just one from the side winded media everyone here loves so much:

http://lawnewz.com/crazy/convicted-burglar-sues-homeowner-who-shot-him/

First off, read the article yourself.  The guy is suing because he claims he was trying to get away when he was shot.  In my prior post, I said that could get you sued.  Secondly, he is currently suing.  He has not won anything at this point.  I'm betting he will not win the case either. 

Nothing in this article, or your post, contradicts what I posted above.  It does not make the point that you can be sued, and will lose, if someone gets hurt while breaking into you home, or stealing your property.  

You cannot win a lawsuit if you get injured in the process of committing a crime.  

If someone is caught committing a crime, and tries to escape from his captor without posing a threat to the captor, and the captor injures him with malice aforethought, the captor can be sued. 

It's that simple.