Question: When you enter someone’s property, do the courts treat you differently based upon why you entered the property in determining what duty was owed to you?
Answer: Yes. In Indiana, the status of a person when he is injured on the premises of another determines the duty owed to that person by the owner of the property. A person entering the land of another is either a trespasser, licensee or invitee. A landowner owes a trespasser the duty to refrain from willfully or wantonly injuring him after discovering his presence and owes a licensee the duty to refrain from willfully or wantonly injuring him or acting in a manner to increase his peril. However, a landowner owes an invitee a duty to exercise reasonable care for the invitee’s protection while the invitee is on the premises. Under Indiana law, an invitee is a person who goes onto the land of another at the express or implied invitation of owner or occupant either to transact business or for the mutual benefit of invitee and owner or occupant. Invited social guests are invitees and are entitled to a duty of reasonable care from landowners. Further, a visitor may be an invitee when he comes on to the property, his status may change to that of a licensee while he is on the premises if the use to which he puts the property does not correspond to the owner’s reason for holding the property open. A licensee is one who enters premises of another for his own convenience, curiosity, or entertainment.
