Wyoming Theme Park Injury Lawyer

Whether a Wyoming Park Owed a Duty of Care to an Injured Guest

If you were hurt at a park, two legal theories usually shape whether a claim exists. The first is premises liability: a landowner's or operator's legal responsibility for the safety of people on its property. It rests on a duty of care, the obligation to act with reasonable care toward guests, and asks whether that duty was breached and whether the breach caused the injury and losses. The second is product liability, which applies when a ride, restraint or piece of equipment is alleged to be defective, and asks whether a defect caused the injury. An injury alone proves neither.

Wyoming adds its recreational use act in Title 34, which covers people coming onto land for recreation. Section 34-19-102 of the Wyoming Statutes states that, except as recognized or provided in section 34-19-105, "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 on such premises to persons entering for recreational purposes."

The recreational use act states that "nothing in this act limits in any way any liability which otherwise exists" in listed cases. Two matter most here. The first is liability "for willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, structure, or activity," an exception that carves out certain owners of land next to a designated national scenic trail. The second is liability "for injury suffered in any case where the owner of land charges the persons who enter or go on the land for recreational purposes." Lease payments the state or a subdivision of the state makes for leased land do not count as a charge.

What is at stake is whether the park owed you any duty at all. For a commercial park that sells admission, whether you paid, what the payment covered and who received it are facts a court would look at, and a lost ticket or pass record can make that question harder to answer. Sorting out which duty applies to a particular visit is a common starting point in a conversation with an attorney.

What Happened at the Park: Rides, Grounds, and Water Attractions

Ride incidents include a restraint that opens or fails, a sudden stop, or a rider thrown from a seat. A ride restraint is the lap bar, harness or belt meant to hold a rider in place. These events can raise both theories at once: the operator's conduct points to premises liability, and the ride's design or manufacture points to product liability. Some ride injuries are not visible at first, as covered on the page about roller coaster brain injury.

Water attractions such as slides, wave pools and lazy rivers can cause collisions, falls and impact injuries. This page covers those injuries. Drowning falls outside it.

Grounds hazards include wet walkways, uneven pavement, poor lighting and crowd surges near queues or exits. These usually fall under premises liability, and the question is whether the operator knew of, or should have known of, the condition and failed to address it.

Wyoming gives a minor's claim its own timing rule. Section 1-3-114 of the Wyoming Statutes provides that a person who is a minor, or is under another legal disability, when the cause of action accrues "may bring the action within three (3) years after the disability is removed or within any other statutory period of limitation, whichever is greater." The section excludes actions arising from errors in licensed or certified professional or health care services, and actions for a penalty or forfeiture.

What happened matters because it decides which theory, and which party, a claim points toward. If you were hurt in any of these ways, the records that usually matter include medical records, the park's incident report, photos and video, witnesses' names and the admission receipt.

Who May Be Responsible When You Are Hurt at a Wyoming Park

If you were hurt, more than one business may stand behind the ride or walkway involved, and each faces a different legal question. The park operator that runs the rides and grounds, and a separate owner of the land, may face a premises-liability claim. A ride manufacturer or component supplier may face a product-liability claim. A maintenance or inspection contractor may be involved if the claim concerns how a ride was serviced. Naming a party does not establish its fault.

This matters because a claim aimed only at the wrong party can be dismissed. Under section 1-1-117 of the Wyoming Statutes, a party sued for damages may file an affidavit certifying that it was "not directly or indirectly involved in the occurrence." The court then orders dismissal of the claim against that party, except as subsection (b) provides. The affidavit must be filed within the time for an answer, if no answer is filed, and in any event at least twenty days before trial. A dismissal order based on the affidavit cannot be entered within ten days after the affidavit is filed.

When a county, city or state agency owns or runs the park, claims fall under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act. Its liability limits in section 1-39-118 of the Wyoming Statutes apply only to claims against governmental entities, as that section's current text states them. Under section 1-39-117, state-court claims under the act go to Wyoming's district courts. Confirming who owned and ran the attraction is one of the first things an attorney can help sort out.

Filing Deadlines Under Wyoming Law

The general period for many injury claims sits in section 1-3-105 of the Wyoming Statutes. It provides four years for "an injury to the rights of the plaintiff, not arising on contract and not herein enumerated." When the period begins to run depends on the section's current text and the facts.

Under section 1-38-102, "an action for wrongful death shall be commenced within two (2) years after the death of the decedent." The minor's rule in section 1-3-114 can lengthen a child's period.

Claims against a governmental entity follow a tighter sequence. Section 1-39-113 bars an action unless the claim is presented to the entity "as an itemized statement in writing within two (2) years of the date of the alleged act, error or omission." The statement includes, among other things, the amount of compensation or other relief demanded. An action may be brought not more than two years after discovery if the claimant shows that the act, error or omission was not reasonably discoverable within two years, or fits the section's other listed grounds.

Section 1-39-114 then bars the action "unless commenced within one (1) year after the date the claim is filed." For a minor seven years of age or younger, the action must be commenced within two years after the occurrence or by the child's eighth birthday, whichever period is greater. The section's period is never longer than any other applicable limitation period. When there is no applicable insurance coverage and the claim was properly filed, the period is tolled forty-five days after the entity's decision, if that decision was not made and mailed to the claimant within the statutory time.

If a public body may be involved, the facts a reader in that position typically confirms early are who owned or ran the attraction, the injured person's age, the date of the incident and the losses that would go into an itemized statement. An attorney can help line those up against the periods above.

What Happens If You Were Partly at Fault at a Wyoming Park

People often worry that something they did, such as standing at the wrong moment or missing a sign, will end their claim. Wyoming applies comparative fault, which divides responsibility among everyone whose conduct contributed to an injury. Contributory fault is the injured person's own share. Section 1-1-109 of the Wyoming Statutes, titled "Comparative fault," provides in subsection (b):

"Contributory fault shall not bar a recovery in an action by any claimant or the claimant's legal representative to recover damages for wrongful death or injury to person or property, if the contributory fault of the claimant is not more than fifty percent (50%) of the total fault of all actors. Any damages allowed shall be diminished in proportion to the amount of fault attributed to the claimant."

A claimant not more than half at fault sees damages reduced by their share. A claimant more than fifty percent at fault is barred. Because the comparison is to "the total fault of all actors," the shares of the operator, a manufacturer or a contractor all count.

An operator may raise a waiver, a signed document or ticket term giving up certain claims, or argue that the guest assumed a known risk or acted carelessly. How a court treats either depends on the document's exact words and the facts. For a guest, the fault question often comes down to what the ride rules said, what staff instructed and what video or witnesses show.

Damages Wyoming Law May Allow — and What They Depend On

If you were hurt, the losses a claim can reach are set by statute and by proof. Section 1-1-109 frames the claim as one "to recover damages for wrongful death or injury to person or property," and defines wrongful death as the cause of action "to recover money damages when the death of a person is caused by the fault of an actor." Which losses count, such as medical expenses, lost earnings, future care, and pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life, depends on current law and the facts. Damages also depend on proof of the loss, the injury's effect on daily life and work, and the fault reduction described above.

For a death, section 1-38-102 directs that the action is brought "for the exclusive benefit of beneficiaries who have sustained damage."

The liability limits in section 1-39-118 belong only to claims against governmental entities. They are not a general cap on claims against private operators, owners or manufacturers. In practice, gaps in bills, pay records or treatment notes can make a loss harder to prove, and an attorney can help identify which records support each category.

Records That Can Support a Wyoming Park Injury Claim

Because a claim can turn on fault shares, on whether admission was charged and on why a ride behaved as it did, missing records can weaken a claim that would otherwise hold. People who were hurt, and families, often gather:

• Medical records and treatment documentation from the first visit onward.
• The incident report made with the park at the time of the injury.
• Photos and video of the scene, the ride or the hazard.
• Witnesses' names and contact details.
• Admission receipts, tickets or season-pass records, which bear on the recreational use charge exception.
• Any waiver, ticket terms or posted ride rules.

Maintenance and inspection records are typically held by the operator, and a manufacturer or supplier may hold ride and restraint documentation if product liability is at issue. The records that fix the date, place, attraction and who controlled it also decide which deadline above applies.

When a Death Occurs: Wyoming's Wrongful Death Law

Losing someone at a place meant for a good day brings grief and confusion together. Section 1-38-102 of the Wyoming Statutes provides that "every wrongful death action under W.S. 1-38-101 shall be brought by and in the name of the decedent's wrongful death representative for the exclusive benefit of beneficiaries who have sustained damage."

The wrongful death representative is the person in whose name the action is brought. The beneficiaries are those who sustained damage from the death. The case is not brought by each family member separately.

The period is two years "after the death of the decedent," running from the date of death, not the injury. If a governmental entity owned or ran the attraction, the itemized written claim under section 1-39-113 and the one-year suit period under section 1-39-114 also come into play.

Identifying the representative and beneficiaries, and lining up the two-year period with any government claim steps, are questions a family can work through in a case evaluation with our attorney.