Iowa’s Recreational Use Immunity - Now You See It, Now You Don’t

An Iowa statutory provision, known as the recreational use statute, provides an incentive for landowners to open up their property to entrants for recreational purposes by removing the common-law duties that landowners owe to lawful property entrants.  Recreational users are generally treated as adult trespassers – the landowner only owes recreational entrants a duty to refrain from willfully or wantonly injuring them.  However, a recent opinion of the Iowa Court of Appeals, which has been affirmed and expanded by the Iowa Supreme Court, has invalidated the Iowa recreational use statute in its present form.   The decision has important implications for landowners that open up their property to others for recreational uses.