S-3945               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6495

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senators Patrick, Rasmussen and Metcalf

Read first time 1/15/90 and referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

AN ACT Relating to outdoor recreation; and amending RCW 4.24.210.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 2, chapter 216, Laws of 1967 as last amended by section 1, chapter 111, Laws of 1980 and RCW 4.24.210 are each amended to read as follows:

          Any public or private landowners or others in lawful possession and control of any lands whether rural or urban, or water areas or channels and lands adjacent to such areas or channels, who allow members of the public to use them for the purposes of outdoor recreation, which term includes, but is not limited to, the cutting, gathering, and removing of firewood by private persons for their personal use without purchasing the firewood from the landowner, hunting, fishing, camping, picnicking, swimming, hiking, bicycling, the riding of horses or other animals, clam digging, pleasure driving of off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and other vehicles, boating, nature study, winter or water sports, viewing or enjoying historical, archaeological, scenic, or scientific sites, without charging a fee of any kind therefor, shall not be liable for unintentional injuries to such users:  PROVIDED, That any public or private landowner, or others in lawful possession and control of the land, may charge an administrative fee of up to ten dollars for the cutting, gathering, and removing of firewood from the land:  PROVIDED FURTHER, That nothing in this section shall prevent the liability of such a landowner or others in lawful possession and control for injuries sustained to users by reason of a known dangerous artificial latent condition for which warning signs have not been conspicuously posted:  PROVIDED FURTHER, That nothing in RCW 4.24.200 and 4.24.210 limits or expands in any way the doctrine of attractive nuisance:  AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the usage by members of the public is permissive and does not support any claim of adverse possession.

In any lawsuit against a public or private landowner where recreational access to the land was permitted without fee, if the plaintiff fails to establish that the landowner was willfully guilty of a malicious act which led directly to the plaintiff's injury or loss, the plaintiff shall be liable to the defendant for all direct and indirect costs incurred in defending against the lawsuit.