Am I liable if trespassers on my private property injure themselves? If people trespass on my property (i.e. walk through my backyard without my permission) and they get injured (i.e. trip and break an arm or a tree branch falls on their head), am I liable under Georgia law?
This is a general common law answer; Georgia may have statutes or the common law there may change this. In order to establish negligence as a Cause of Action under the law of torts, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant: had a duty to the plaintiff, breached that duty by failing to conform to the required standard of conduct (generally the standard of a reasonable person), the negligent conduct was, in law, the cause of the harm to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff was, in fact, harmed or damaged. For your scenario: Most jurisdictions have held that you do have a duty to innocent trespassers - people on your property without permission but without criminal intent. The children you describe in your comment fall into that category. Your duty is to do what a reasonable person would to ensure that your yard is free from unreasonable hazards. If you have an abandoned mine shaft you should fence it sort of thing. The damage must be a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the failure to discharge the duty The person must actually be harmed.
Is the contractor liable? It depends. Trespass and conversion would be the applicable torts. In some jurisdictions, those are strict liability torts, in others they are intentional torts. The contractor lacks intent, but did participate in the act. I haven't yet had a chance to check out California in particular. California appears to come close to a strict liability regime based upon the relevant jury instruction and related commentary. In a suit, would PersonB sue contractor for damages, who would then sue PersonA, or would PersonB sue PersonA directly for damages? Person B would sue both. The contractor for participating in the act, and Person A as the principal upon whose behalf the contractor is working as an agent, on a respondeat superior theory. Person A could have liability even if the contractor didn't, in this fact pattern. Would actions by PersonA be criminal? Probably, as a form of criminal trespass, criminal vandalism and possibly even burglary (sometimes defined as trespass with an intent to commit a further crime). I'd need to check California's criminal statute definitions to be sure of precisely what. But, in reality, PersonA would usually have a bona fide good faith belief that he had a legal right to do so, and in that case, it would not be a crime. Would actions by contractor be criminal? No. For criminal law purposes, the contractor lacked the requisite intent. The intent elements of the criminal trespass statute in California are here.
There is no law against lying in these circumstances. In fact, for a very modest sum, security companies sell dummy CCTV cameras to make this lie more convincing. However, trespass only happens if people have been warned so this works for literate people who speak English and see the sign. That leaves a very large group of people who would not be trespassing even with the sign. A further problem with a sign on the house is that people have no idea how far away they have to get in order to stop trespassing. In addition, legitimate visitors (uninvited or not) are not trespassers. It seems that people are coming onto your property because they are thirsty. A better way to deal with this is go to your local hardware store and replace the tap with a vandal proof tap that has a removable head. Keep that inside and put a sign next to the tap saying "Refrigerated Water $2 - knock on front door".
From a comment on the question: They did damage the trailer door and headlight is smashed This seems like the best thing to focus on, especially if you can show that it was not damaged before they towed it. The unusual method of towing (with video evidence) may be a factor in whether they are considered negligent. If the damage to the door looks like they caused it directly by breaking in, that would also help your case. You also asked in your comment if you should go to the police or to a lawyer first. Might as well go to the lawyer and see what they tell you to do. I'm not sure what the police would do if there is no clear crime that has been committed. (The lawyer should have better advice about whether/why to go to the police.)
If it doesn’t cause substantial interference to the easement rights You need to look at the specific terms of the easement i.e. what right it gives to your neighbour. If you can build your chicken coop in such a way that it doesn’t materially affect those rights, then that’s ok However, for this type of easement, any ground level structure is likely to interfere with the use of the easement.
Yes Assuming you were assaulted (with or without battery) and you suffered injury (physical or otherwise) during that assault you are entitled to damages. The injury has to flow from the assault but not necessarily from the assaulter. For example, if you fled across the road and were struck by a car you could sue your attacker. Because assault is an intentional tort, it is not necessary for you to prove that actual financial loss was suffered - this is not negligence. The court can assess economic loss, non-economic loss and exemplary (punitive) damages.
Your rights and responsibilities in this realm are a matter of local law, sometimes down to the level of the city, plus whatever is stipulated in the lease. In San Francisco, for example, No Person shall have upon any premises or real property owned, occupied or controlled by him, or her, or it any public nuisance [which includes] Any visible or otherwise demonstrable mold or mildew in the interiors of any buildings or facilities This does not say whether the owner or the occupant is liable for remediating the situation. Shower mold is gross but not a health hazard (the SF ordinance just lumps all mold into one category). Since you have no written lease, there is no automatic clean-up requirement. There might be a law requiring a tenant to clean the premise to its original condition, for instance in Washington, tenant must Upon termination and vacation, restore the premises to their initial condition except for reasonable wear and tear or conditions caused by failure of the landlord to comply with his or her obligations under this chapter. Landlord duties are here: there is no duty to provide ventilation. However, the bathtub appears to be in a common area and not your particular unit. The landlord duties also require the landlord to Keep any shared or common areas reasonably clean, sanitary, and safe from defects increasing the hazards of fire or accident so in Washington, it's his problem and not yours. In general, even if a tenant is responsible for some form of cleanup, that does not constitute legal license for a facility upgrade. It might cost a couple hundred dollars to hire a person to wash ordinary mold accumulation, and does not justify getting a $5,000 new tub. Since this is in a common area, you would not be solely liable for whatever the damage was. The part where you say "crack in a common bath tub" is a large red flag: it suggests to me that somebody negligently broke the bathtub, and then caused behind-the-wall damage by letting water infiltrate without notifying the landlord. If you broke the tub and let it rot, you could be liable. If the tub was broken already and the landlord didn't bother to do anything about it, that is his negligence. The three questions that you should try to answer are: (1) what are the duties of landlord and tenant in my jurisdiction, (2) what was the actual harm done, and who did it, (3) what is the ordinary cost of whatever repair was done.
Trespassing requires knowledge by the trespasser If you are on somebody’s land without knowing you are, or under the impression (which is the default for unenclosed land) that you have permission, you aren’t trespassing. The signs, if prominent enough, make the entry knowingly against the wishes of the controller and therefore trespassing.