North Dakota Trampoline Accident Lawyer

North Dakota Law and Trampoline Injury Claims: A State Snapshot

Three legal theories tend to come up after a trampoline injury in North Dakota. Premises liability is the responsibility a property owner or occupier may carry for unsafe conditions on land they control, such as a trampoline park or a backyard setup. Product liability is responsibility for a trampoline or part that was defective in how it was designed, made or labeled. Wrongful death is the action North Dakota law allows when a death is caused by a wrongful act, neglect or default.

Each theory runs on its own North Dakota rules: limitation periods, a comparative-fault rule, a product-liability cutoff that does not stretch for children, and a recreational-use statute that can remove a landowner's ordinary duty of care. None of these rules is national. The site's general trampoline accident claims guide covers the national picture; this page stays on North Dakota.

For someone hurt in North Dakota, what is at stake in this sorting is practical: the theory that fits the facts decides which deadline runs and which defenses a claim may meet. A conversation with an attorney at this stage can help sort out whether the facts point toward the property, the equipment, or both.

If You Are Unsure Who Was Responsible for the Trampoline

Trampoline injuries in North Dakota arise in familiar settings: a commercial trampoline park, a backyard trampoline at a friend's or relative's home, and trampolines at hotels, gyms or other facilities open to guests or members. Fractures, spinal injuries and head injuries can follow from collisions between jumpers, falls off the mat, or equipment that fails.

The setting shapes who may be responsible. A property owner or occupier may face a premises claim, with the question being what duty the law placed on them and whether it was met. An operator that runs a park, or a company that maintains its equipment, may be asked about supervision, inspection and upkeep, which is where negligent supervision claims come from. A manufacturer or seller may face a product-liability action, which North Dakota defines in chapter 28-01.3 to include claims based on design, manufacture, assembly, labeling, failure to warn and failure to give proper instructions. An injury alone does not prove anyone's fault.

For the reader, the stake is that each possible defendant may bring a different deadline or defense, so overlooking one can narrow the options. If you were hurt, the details that usually help answer this question include where the trampoline stood, who owned and ran it, whether an entry fee was charged, the brand and age of the equipment, and any incident report the venue made.

Many commercial parks ask jumpers or parents to sign a waiver or release before entry. The statutes discussed on this page do not address whether such a document is enforced, though "assumption of risk" appears in North Dakota's definition of fault, discussed below. Whether a particular waiver affects a claim is a question that turns on its wording and the facts, and a copy of any signed waiver is among the documents an attorney can review.

When the Injury Happened on Someone Else's Land: Recreational-Use Immunity

Section 53-08-02 of the North Dakota Century Code provides that an owner of land "owes no duty of care to keep the premises safe for entry or use by others for recreational purposes," or to give any warning of a dangerous condition, use, structure or activity to people entering for those purposes. This is often called recreational-use immunity.

The same section says it does not apply to "an owner engaged in a for-profit business venture that directly or indirectly invites members of the public onto the premises for commercial purposes or during normal periods of commercial activity in which members of the public are invited," or to a person who enters to provide goods or services at the owner's request and under the owner's direction or control. Section 53-08-05 adds that the chapter does not limit any liability that otherwise exists for a "willful and malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, structure, or activity," or for injury where the owner charges for entry (other than any amount paid by the state) and the owner's total recreational-use charges in the previous calendar year exceeded twice the property taxes on the land, or four times the taxes for agricultural land.

In practice, a commercial park that invites the public in as a business sits within the statute's for-profit exception, so the shield as written does not reach it. A private setting with no charge is a harder question. "Willful and malicious" asks for more than ordinary carelessness, so where the shield applies, the claim depends on a higher showing. Whether a given backyard is "land" used for "recreational purposes" is itself fact-driven.

For someone weighing a claim, the next questions are usually whether the owner ran a business, whether anyone paid to get in, and what the owner knew about the danger. Receipts or messages about an entry charge, and anything showing prior warnings or complaints, can help an attorney assess which side of the statute the facts fall on.

If the Trampoline Was Older or Bought Used: The Product Statute of Repose

Section 28-01.3-08 of the North Dakota Century Code provides that, except as provided in subsections 4 and 5 of that section, "there may be no recovery of damages in a products liability action unless the injury, death, or property damage occurs within ten years of the date of initial purchase for use or consumption, or within eleven years of the date of manufacture of a product." The section adds that it "applies to all persons, regardless of minority or other legal disability," and it also addresses a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer that issues a recall or becomes aware of a defect.

This is a statute of repose: an outer limit measured from the product's purchase or manufacture, not from the injury. A statute of limitations, by contrast, runs from when a claim accrues. A product claim has to satisfy both. For the reader, this means an older backyard trampoline, passed down or bought used, may already be outside the product window even if the fall was recent, and a child's age does not change that.

The chapter defines "unreasonably dangerous" as dangerous beyond what an ordinary and prudent buyer, user or consumer in that community would contemplate, considering the product's characteristics, risks and uses. A fall or a broken spring does not by itself prove a defect; whether a defect caused the injury depends on the facts.

Someone considering a product claim may weigh, first, when the trampoline was bought and made. Receipts, order history, labels and serial plates often establish those dates, and an attorney can review whether the recall and defect-awareness provisions of the section bear on the equipment involved.

Filing Deadlines Under North Dakota Law — and Why They Differ by Situation

Which deadline applies depends on who was hurt, whether a death followed, and whether a government is involved. The stake for the reader is direct: a claim brought after the applicable period may be cut off regardless of its merits.

For most injuries that no other statute covers, North Dakota allows six years from when the claim accrues. That comes from section 28-01-16 of the North Dakota Century Code, whose fifth numbered item covers "an action for criminal conversation or for any other injury to the person or rights of another not arising upon contract, when not otherwise expressly provided." When the injury leads to a death, the period is shorter: section 28-01-18, except as provided in section 28-01-25.2, sets two years for "an action for injuries done to the person of another, when death ensues from such injuries," with the claim deemed to accrue "at the time of the death of the party injured" (malpractice deaths follow a separate discovery rule).

For a person under eighteen when the claim accrues, section 28-01-25 provides that "the time of such disability is not a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action." The section caps extensions: no disability except infancy may extend the period more than five years, no extension may run longer than one year after the disability ends, and in professional malpractice cases the infancy extension is limited to twelve years. The product repose period applies regardless of minority.

Claims involving a government follow their own rules. Under section 32-12.2-04, a person bringing a claim against the state or a state employee for an injury must present written notice to the director of the office of management and budget within one hundred eighty days after the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, stating the time, place and circumstances, the names of any state employees known to be involved, and the amount of compensation or other relief demanded. For a serious injury, as defined in section 26.1-41-01, the notice period is one year. The time does not include any period when the injured person is incapacitated from giving notice, and an action under the chapter must be commenced within the period in section 28-01-22.1. Under section 32-12.1-10, an action against a political subdivision must, except as that section otherwise provides, be commenced within three years after the claim accrues.

The question to weigh next is usually who ran the place where the injury happened. If a public facility is involved, the shorter notice windows can be the ones that matter most, and an attorney can help identify which clock applies.

If You Think You Were Partly to Blame: Comparative Fault in North Dakota

Many people hurt on a trampoline worry that a flip they tried, or a rule they did not follow, ends any claim. Section 32-03.2-02 of the North Dakota Century Code answers that directly: "Contributory fault does not bar recovery in an action by any person to recover damages for death or injury to person or property unless the fault was as great as the combined fault of all other persons who contribute to the injury, but any damages allowed must be diminished in proportion to the amount of contributing fault attributable to the person recovering."

This is modified comparative fault: a jumper's own share of fault reduces what may be recovered, and fault as great as everyone else's combined bars recovery. "Fault" here is broader than carelessness. Under section 32-03.2-01, it can include strict liability for a product defect, assumption of risk, misuse of a product, and failure to use reasonable care to avoid an injury, so a defendant may point to how the trampoline was used. The jury may be asked to find each person's percentage of fault, whether or not that person is a party.

The same section makes liability "several only, and is not joint," so each party is liable only for the damages tied to its own percentage of fault, except that persons who act in concert, or who aid, encourage, ratify or adopt a tortious act, are jointly liable for their combined share. When a park, a maintenance company and a manufacturer all played some part, how fault is divided shapes what each may owe.

For someone in this position, it may help to note what actually happened in the moments before the injury, what rules were posted, and who was supervising. An attorney can help weigh how those facts might be viewed in a fault allocation.

Evidence That Often Matters in a North Dakota Trampoline Injury Case

The evidence that matters follows the theory. A premises claim asks about duty, breach, causation and damages, and possibly about entry fees and the recreational-use statute. A product claim asks about a defect, causation and the product's dates. What is at stake is that the strength of either kind of claim often rests on records that can be lost or discarded soon after an accident.

If you were hurt, the records that often matter include medical records and treatment history, which bear on causation and on the harm itself. Photos and video of the trampoline, the court or yard, padding, nets, springs and any visible condition often help show what the setting looked like. In product cases, the trampoline itself, its parts, labels, manuals and the receipt or order history can bear on both a defect question and the ten- and eleven-year repose dates. Incident reports, any admission receipt or signed waiver, and the names and contact details of witnesses round out the picture.

Families often find that these items answer questions they did not know the law would ask, such as whether an entry charge was paid. If you would like to talk through which of these records bear on a North Dakota claim, you can request a case evaluation with our attorney.

When a Trampoline Accident Is Fatal: Wrongful Death in North Dakota

When a trampoline accident takes a life, the family is grieving and, often, also trying to understand what the law allows. Section 32-21-01 of the North Dakota Century Code allows an action whenever a death is caused by a wrongful act, neglect or default that would have let the injured person sue had they lived.

North Dakota sets a fixed order for who brings the claim. Under section 32-21-03, the action "shall be brought by the following persons in the order named": first the surviving husband or wife, then the surviving children, then the surviving mother or father, then a surviving grandparent, then the personal representative, and finally a person who had primary physical custody of the decedent before the wrongful act. If a person entitled to bring the action refuses or neglects to do so for thirty days after demand by the next person in order, that next person may bring it. Under section 32-21-06, a compromise by the person entitled to bring the action binds everyone authorized to sue or share.

On damages, section 32-21-02 directs the jury to give "such damages as it finds proportionate to the injury resulting from the death to the persons entitled to the recovery," and section 32-21-04 says the amount is not liable for the decedent's debts and goes to the heirs at law in shares the judge fixes. The two-year period in section 28-01-18, accruing at the time of death, applies.

A family in this position may weigh who stands first in the statutory order, whether that person intends to act, and how any settlement would bind the others. An attorney can help the family work through those questions within the two-year window. Families comparing rules elsewhere may notice differences on the Iowa trampoline injury page or the Illinois trampoline injury page.