Sibling loses appeal over injury from backyard zip line

WEST BLOOMFIELD (AP) — The Michigan appeals court said a zip line is covered under the state’s recreation law, a distinction that gives some legal protection to landowners if someone is injured.

The decision last week came in a lawsuit by a woman who needed surgery after injuring her knee while zip lining in her brother’s yard in Oakland County. A person on a zip line wears a harness and flies through the air on a cable.

A judge had dismissed the lawsuit in favor of Arthur Rott, and the appeals court agreed. The court said Rott’s actions were “not grossly negligent or willful or wanton misconduct.”

Doreen Rott argued that she was at her brother’s home for a family gathering, not for the purpose of zip lining.

“Plaintiff is correct in her assertion that there is no published case law applying the RUA to zip lining,” the court said, referring to Michigan’s Recreational Use Act. “Nonetheless, we conclude that zip lining is of the same kind, class, character or nature of the recreational activities enumerated in the statute.”

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