§ 101.059.Attractive Nuisances

One sentence removing a doctrine: the chapter does not apply to a claim based on the theory of attractive nuisance.

Attractive nuisance is the common law rule under which a landowner may be liable to a trespassing child injured by a hazardous condition likely to attract children — the classic examples being an unfenced swimming pool, an abandoned excavation, or unattended machinery.

The doctrine exists because children do not appreciate danger and cannot be expected to respect boundaries, so the ordinary rule that a trespasser is owed almost nothing produces harsh results.

The exclusion means a Texas governmental unit does not face that liability. Municipal pools, construction sites, drainage works, and equipment yards are not subject to the doctrine under this chapter.

It fits the pattern of this subchapter. The premise defect section reduces the duty to the licensee standard; the recreational use section reduces it further for recreational land; and this section removes the doctrine that would otherwise raise the duty owed to a child trespasser above the general rule.

Each of the three operates on the same underlying question — what a governmental landowner owes a person on its property — and each answers it downward.