A property owner cannot be held responsible for all accidents that occur on her property. This has now been decided by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main (OLG, Ref. 17 W 17/22). In the case in question, a neighbor walked across a rain-soaked stone path covered with leaves and branches to the owner's terrace to talk to her. On the way back, she fell and suffered a fracture of the pubic bone, the seat and the sacrum.
She therefore demanded 20,000 euros in damages and compensation for pain and suffering from the owner and also wanted legal aid. The application for legal aid had already been rejected by the Regional Court. The appeal against this before the Higher Regional Court was also unsuccessful. It is true that the owner is responsible for the duty of care. However, not every abstract danger had to be prevented.
"A general prohibition not to endanger others would be utopian," emphasizes the OLG. Only safety precautions must be taken "which a reasonable, prudent, careful and conscientious member of the relevant traffic community may consider sufficient to protect other persons from harm and which can reasonably be expected of him under the circumstances," according to the OLG. In the case of an accident that cannot be ruled out, but which occurs "under particularly peculiar and remote circumstances," the injured party would have to pay for the damage himself.
Source: ordentliche-gerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/Az. 17 W 17/22
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