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Pagnotti v. Lancaster Township5/16/2000
. 68 P.S. ยง477-2(1). In fact, the Township points to several cases where, despite the presence of ancillary buildings and structures, this court applied the RUA to immunize municipal corporations from liability where the plaintiffs were injured while using local public parks for recreational purposes without a fee. According to the Township, Maple Grove Park does not differ from any of these cases, asserting that here too, Maple Grove Park's structures are clearly ancillary to its main purpose, i.e., outdoor recreation, and Thomas and Jason paid no fee to be on the property pursuing this purpose.
Specifically, the Township cites Brezinski v. County of Allegheny, 694 A.2d 388 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997) (concluding that the county was immune under the RUA when a picnicker at a county park sued for injuries sustained in a slip and fall while walking down a hillside from a picnic pavilion to a parking lot); Wilkinson v. Conoy Township, 677 A.2d 876 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1996) (concluding that, under the RUA, a township was not liable to a plaintiff who was injured when she fell into a hole caused by a removed tree trunk on the grounds of the township park); Jones v. Cheltenham Township, 543 A.2d 1258 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1988) (concluding that a township was immune under the RUA in an action arising out of the death of a boy who fell into a fifteen-foot drop off in a township park creek and drowned); Kniaz v. Benton Borough, 535 A.2d 308 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1988) (concluding that the borough was immune under the RUA in an action brought by a plaintiff injured when the bench on which she was seated overturned while she was attending a picnic in a pavilion in the borough's public park); and Farley v. Township of Upper Darby, 514 A.2d 1023 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1986), appeal denied, 517 Pa. 611, 536 A.2d 1334 (1987) (concluding that the RUA immunized the township from suit by parents whose child was injured when he fell from a sliding board in the township park). We disagree that the cases relied on by the Township necessarily support its position.
Initially, we point out that Brezinski (unimproved hillside) and Jones (unaltered creek) can easily be distinguished from the present case because, unlike the situation here, the injuries to the plaintiffs in those cases were not attributable to any improvement on the property. In fact, this same distinction can be made with regard to Lory (natural pond), relied on here by the Township. Further, in Farley, Jones, Kniaz and Wilkinson, the question of improvements to the land was not at issue in determining immunity under the RUA, and, therefore, these cases offer no help to the Township.
As is so often the case when dealing with the RUA, none of the decisions relied on by the parties controls the particular situation. However, from a review of the cases dealing with the RUA, we identify the following factors that the courts have considered in determining whether the RUA was intended to apply to insulate a particular landowner from tort liability: (1) the nature of the area in question, that is, whether it is urban or rural, indoor or outdoor, large or small; (2) the type of recreation offered in the area, that is, whether persons enter to participate in one of the recreational purposes listed in section 2(3) of the RUA; (3) the extent of the area's development, that is, whether the site is completely developed and/or significantly altered from its natural state; and (4) the character of the area's development, that is, whether the area has been adapted for a new recreational purpose or, instead, would be amenable to the enumerated recreational purposes of the RUA even without alteration. We also deem it appropriate to consider any unique facts as additional factors where doing so would ad
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