§486K-5.5 Hotelkeeper's liability limited for certain beach and ocean activities. In a claim alleging injury or loss on account of a hazardous condition on a beach or in the ocean, a hotelkeeper shall be liable to a hotel guest for damages for personal injury, death, property damage, or other loss resulting from the hotel guest going onto the beach or into the ocean for a recreational purpose, including wading, swimming, surfing, body surfing, boogie boarding, diving, or snorkeling, only when such loss or injury is caused by the hotelkeeper's failure to warn against a hazardous condition on a beach or in the ocean, known, or which should have been known to a reasonably prudent hotelkeeper, and when the hazardous condition is not known to the guest or would not have been known to a reasonably prudent guest. A hotelkeeper owes no duty and shall have no liability for conditions which were not created by the hotel to a person who is not a guest of the hotel for injury or damage resulting from any beach or ocean activity.

As used in this section, "beach" means the beach fronting the hotel, and "hotel guest" means a guest of that particular hotel and other persons occupying the assigned rooms. [L 1994, c 90, §2]

Case Notes

Defendant's motion for summary judgment denied, where, inter alia, (1) defendant's hotel did not "front" the beach within the meaning of this statute because it was not contiguous with the beach; thus, defendant not protected by the limitations on liability contained in this statute; and (2) court not persuaded by defendant's argument that this statute abrogated the liability of all hotelkeepers for ocean-related injuries. 98 F. Supp. 2d 1129.