State seeks protection against injury lawsuits

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

State land managers, still reeling from a court ruling that found the state negligent in the deadly Sacred Falls rockslide, will ask the Legislature for protection from liability when people are injured on public lands.

"Without this, we think we're going to have to shut areas off," said Michael Buck, administrator of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

In the Sacred Falls case, Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario ruled in September that the state was negligent for the Mother's Day 1999 tragedy, when boulders plummeted into the crowded waterfall area of Sacred Falls State Park. Eight hikers were killed and more than 40 injured. Even though warning signs were posted, Rosario said the state failed to adequately warn visitors of the rock fall hazard.

Damages have not been determined in the case, and the state has appealed the judge's ruling. Meanwhile, the once-popular Sacred Falls State Park remains closed.

Attorney Arthur Y. Park, who represented Sacred Falls victims, said his initial take on the proposed liability legislation is that the state is trying to get the Legislature to absolve it of responsibility when it posts the same kinds of signs that the judge found to have provided inadequate warning at Sacred Falls.

"It sounds awfully broad to me. They're trying, after the fact, to close the barn door," he said. "We generally are opposed to anything that would prevent the right to redress through suit. The state is saying, 'Let us be negligent, or even grossly negligent.' "

Buck said the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has been working diligently to identify its risky public areas, and it is consulting with the U.S. Forest Service to develop a system of signs that meets national standards.

"We just finished a risk assessment of all the stuff that we have," he said.

But without a guarantee of immunity when proper warnings have been installed, it might not be enough to protect the state from lawsuits, he said.

The proposed legislation would establish a risk assessment system for all public lands to which the public is invited, such as state parks and forest trails. A state risk assessment team would be made up of representatives from the Land Department's parks and forestry divisions and the attorney general's office. The team would have the authority to seek public comment and advise the department's director, who could then authorize the posting of warnings.

Warning signs that have gone through this process "shall be conclusively presumed to be legally adequate to warn for all dangerous natural conditions on the public lands," the proposed legislation says.

On unimproved public lands, there would be no requirement to post signs.

"It sounds like it's saying that they're just going to be doing it in-house. That's what they did in Sacred Falls. All those signs were done in-house, and the judge found they were not adequate," Park said.

Park said he expects that attorneys who represent those injured on public property to oppose the bill.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or at (808) 245-3074.