LEMOYNE, Pa. — The Pennsylvania State Grange is calling for passage of legislation by the Pennsylvania House Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee of legislation providing limited liability for farms engaging in agritourism and agri-entertainment. Specifically, House Bill 1348 sponsored by state Rep. Barbara Gleim, R-Cumberland, says that farms contain inherent natural hazards because they are farms. After visitors are notified of these potential risks, farms receive limited liability protection from civil lawsuits.
HB 1348 also states that farmers must not be negligent since they can still be sued if a visitor is injured because of a preventable safety hazard where the farmer knew about the risk and chose not to resolve it.
“This is a common sense way of removing the fear of extraneous litigation from farms seeking to offer agritourism as a way of supplementing farm income,” said Vince Phillips, legislative director for the Pennsylvania State Grange. “States such as Ohio have already enacted similar legislation and Pennsylvania should follow suit.”
House Bill 1348 is on this week’s calendar for consideration by the House Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee. It is modeled after Act 93 of 2005 which provided limited liability for stables and equine operations.
For your background, Rep. Gleim’s bill can be found here.
— Pennsylvania State Grange