Landowner's Liability Act

In Timpanaro v. Jenkinson’s Pavilion, Inc., 2025 N.J. Super. LEXIS 71 (App. Div. Nov. 21, 2025), the estate of Anthony Timpanaro sued Jenkinson’s Pavilion, a boardwalk amusement complex with access to Point Pleasant Beach, for negligence arising from Anthony’s drowning death.

The case arose when, a few weeks after Labor Day, 2020, grandfather Anthony and his son’s family, visited Jenkinson’s for a day at the beach. Though the summer season had ended and there were no lifeguards on the beach, ordinances and permits required Jenkinson’s to keep the beach premises open. Jenkinson’s posted signs saying, “Beach Closed No Swimming” and “No swimming when lifeguards are off-duty.” While walking on the beach in his bare feet and his pants legs rolled up, Anthony and his grandson looked for seashells and chased seagulls on the wet sand of the water’s edge. Suddenly, a wave unexpectedly rolled in and knocked Anthony down; a second wave pulled him into the ocean. Despite the efforts of his son and local first responders, Anthony drowned.

Before the case could be heard by a jury, Jenkinson’s asked the court to dismiss the case by summary judgment, claiming in part that, because the beach and the ocean were large, outdoor areas open to the public, Jenkinson’s had immunity under the Landowner’s Liability Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:42A-5.1 (“LLA”). The trial court agreed and dismissed the suit. Anthony’s estate quickly appealed, claiming the LLA did not apply to Jenkinson’s.

The LLA states that the owner or occupant of premises, whether or not improved in a natural state or as a commercial enterprise, does not owe a duty to keep the premises safe for people who enter or use the premises for recreational activities, or to warn of any hazardous condition of the land or for any reason arising from people’s activities on the premises. The LLA’s intention was to permit landowners to allow people to use their property for recreational activity free from the tort liability that comes with the common law; with a few exceptions, including willful or wanton conduct or charging a fee for engaging in the recreational activity on the property.

However, prior courts have limited the LLA’s scope, noting that its intention was for largely unsupervised, rural or woodland activities (such as hunting and four-wheeling), and not improved lands that are freely used by the general public and located in populated urban or suburban neighborhoods.

It was on these grounds that the Appellate Division disagreed with the trial court, finding that the LLA did not apply to the beach. They found that it was not located in a rural area and remained openly accessible to and was used freely and frequently by the public. Moreover, it held the LLA did not apply to the ocean, the area that claimed Anthony’s life, as Jenkinson’s is “not [an] owner . . . of the ocean.”

Interestingly, despite disagreeing with the lower court on the LLA, the appellate court upheld Jenkinson’s dismissal on other grounds. The higher court agreed Jenkinson’s had met its duty to a business invitee by posting “no swimming” signs to warn Anthony, but he “was an invitee onto the beach, not the ocean.” It found that by taking off his shoes, rolling up his pants, and walking onto wet sand, he “clearly put himself within reach of the ocean and its waves.”

Plaintiff Andris Arias fell in a hole and was injured while rollerblading on a paved pedestrian pathway in Van Saun County Park in Paramus.  The Park, owned by the County of Bergen, consisted of 130 acres of land.  The issue in Arias v. County of Bergen, 2024 N.J. Super. LEXIS 74 (App. Div. June 14, 2024) was whether the County had immunity under the Landowners Liability Act for this accident.

Under the Landowners Liability Act, certain owners, lessees and occupants of property owe no duty to persons injured while using property for recreational activities and are immune from suit.  N.J.S.A. 2A:42A-3.  This immunity is available to public entities.  The immunity is not available to persons or entities if there is a “willful or malicious failure to guard, or to warn against, a dangerous condition, use, structure or activity.” 

The plaintiff argued that the County was not entitled to immunity under this Act because the Park was located in a residential, suburban neighborhood and, therefore, did not qualify as “premises” protected by the Act.  The County, however, argued that the focus of the Act was the dominant character of the land and the Park, as a property containing recreational lands, was exactly the type of premises that the Act was created to protect. 

Here, the trial court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss, which order was appealed to the Appellate Division.  The Appellate Division upheld the dismissal of the complaint.  It found that under the “dominant character of the land analysis, it was undisputed that the Park offered the general public access to picnic areas, playgrounds, pavilions, athletic fields, wooded areas, bicycling and wooded paths, and the dog park – without charging a fee.”

The Court noted that the Park’s “dominant character as an open space for sport and recreational activities renders the Park the type of property entitled to protection” under the Landowners Liability Act.  Thus, it agreed with the trial court judge that the Park was a “premises” as defined by the Act and that the County was entitled to Landowners Liability Act immunity from this accident.  The Appellate Division also agreed that the motion was not premature and affirmed the trial court decision, dismissing the lawsuit.