Background
Twelve-year-old A.M. attended Busch Gardens’ Howl-O-Scream event with his mother and a friend. Around midnight, the boys entered the Stanleyville Theater through a closed but unlocked door while no show was playing. A.M. went onto the elevated stage, climbed onto a four-foot-high professional circus trampoline, jumped on it, and attempted to dismount by leaping into the air. He landed face-first on the ground below the stage and sustained serious permanent internal injuries.
A.M.’s mother sued Busch Gardens for premises liability. A jury found Busch Gardens 65% at fault, A.M. 25% at fault, and his mother 10% at fault, and the trial court entered a $5.3 million damages judgment after comparative-negligence reductions. It later awarded $375,000 in attorney’s fees and costs under an unaccepted proposal for settlement. Busch Gardens appealed both judgments.
The Court’s Holding
The Second District reversed and directed entry of judgment for Busch Gardens. Although A.M. was a business invitee when he entered the park and could enter the theater, he exceeded the scope of that invitation when he went onto the performance stage and professional trampoline to engage in horseplay. At that point, he was at most an uninvited licensee or trespasser; the court did not need to decide which.
Busch Gardens therefore owed only a duty to avoid willful or wanton harm and, upon discovering A.M.’s presence, to warn of known dangers not open to ordinary observation. The record contained no evidence of willful or wanton conduct, no evidence Busch Gardens knew A.M. was on the stage or trampoline before the accident, and no basis to treat the trampoline’s danger as concealed. The trial court should have granted Busch Gardens’ directed-verdict and judgment-notwithstanding-the-verdict motions. Reversal of the damages judgment also required reversal of the dependent fee-and-cost award.
Key Takeaways
- A visitor’s premises-liability status is determined at the time of injury and can change when the visitor goes beyond the scope of the invitation.
- A ticket to an amusement event did not invite a child to use an elevated performance stage or professional trampoline after the show had ended.
- Without evidence of willful or wanton conduct or prior discovery of the child’s presence, Busch Gardens was not liable under the duty owed to an uninvited licensee or trespasser.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces that a landowner’s invitee duty is limited to areas and uses reasonably within the invitation. It also confirms that courts may resolve entrant status as a matter of law where the material facts are undisputed.
For amusement venues and other property owners, the ruling underscores that liability does not follow merely because a paying guest is injured on the premises; the critical question is whether the guest’s activity and location remained within the invitation’s scope.