One more tiime, with feeling!
While I think she was right to archive the cache due to the fact that trying to win one of these arguments with a landowner is never a good idea for our sport, I personally and professionally conclude she did no wrong other than to place a cache in an place where an over zealous person lives.[/QUOTE]
I don't normally quote myself, but like most others that have commented, I made it clear that I would never engage a landowner, even one that I know was wrong, in a battle over whether there is a lawful right to place a cache in any particular place...PERIOD! I've met a couple, thankfully onlly a couple, that will assert land rights where they have none and just smile and quietly move along. I would point out that there are criminal statutes in Maine that make it a crime to post somebody else's property. The idea there is that if you have no right to control a piece of land, then if you assert control you don't have then that violates the law.
But let me clear one thing up, and that's CMP land, pipelines, paper company roads, etc enjoy immunity from suit from recreational land users. This law was crafted about 20 years ago with a combined effort of the Maine Snowmobile Association, CMP and the paper industry. I was directly invovled in the discussions before the legislature. The law recognizes that these entities allow PUBLIC use of their properties for most lawful purposes but they wanted immunity from claims of recreational users that injured themselves while using the land. Rather then face closure of use, these groups convinced the legislature to bar claims from folks using their lands. This law is a broad acknowledgment that the public is allowed on their property. There are very few CMP transmission lines that are not open to the public and abutting landowners have no reserved rights to bar public use...period. I'm certain tat knows this or he wouldn't publish caches in these places.
And to return to square one, please read my quote again. Even if I knew I was correct in my right to place a cache, I wouldn't engage the landowner in a "can't win" argument. But if members here want a debate on land use and land rights, then I welcome the discussion and hope what I happen to do for a living provides some insight and is at least a little helfpul:)
Land use law and liability 101.
No problem with the questions. The law protects landowners from liability for people who come onto their property for recreational activities. When the law was being debated it was initially proposed that the liability protection would only protect the landowner from claims of people who were specifically invited onto property for recreational activity, hunting, snowmobiling, ATV's hikers etc. The final law protects you from suit from people who may not have permission, ie, trespassers.
But it's all about folks doing recreational things whether invited or not, whether your land is posted or not. The intent of the law was to provide a level of comfort for folks concerned about allowing people to use their land. Without this law there would be few snowmobile trails, hiking trails and probably very restricted use of preserves and other similar properties. CMP and IP were instrumental in the law's passage as they had spent a lot of time defending BS lawsuits.
