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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 26, Issue 1
When A Tree Falls...
By Attorney Mike Bertling, McLario, Helm, Bertling & Spiegel Law Offices (See display ad on Page 40 of this issue of WCN) April 2025
property.
due to such a fall. Careful analy- sis of the facts is necessary to de- termine whether liability exists. Again, accumulating ice and snow on someone’s property does not automatically make them li- able for someone’s fall. Ice and snow are common hazards in Wisconsin. A property owner is
reluctant to find fellow homeown- ers responsible whenever an indi- vidual slips and falls on their property. I suspect it is because each juror puts themselves in the defendant’s position. They then ask themselves whether they, too, can be held liable if they are a lit- tle late in clearing their driveway or sidewalk. However, a different set of cir- cumstances is presented when the ice and snow are on business property. The law in Wisconsin places a higher duty on busi- nesses with respect to making their property safe. Because their doors are open for profit, the law requires them to do more to keep those who come upon their prop- erty safe to create those profits. This is called the Safe Place Statute. The bottom line is a private property owner is only required to do what another property owner would do under the same or sim- ilar circumstances. The final de- cision about what is needed could end up in the hands of fellow pri- vate property owners on a jury, so establishing liability can be difficult. Nonetheless, it can occur, and it is in everybody’s best interest to be on the lookout for potentially dangerous condi- tions that create an unreasonable risk of harm to individuals. McLario.com
This does not mean that a prop- erty owner is automatically re- sponsible for any injury occurring on their property. I have had many calls from individuals in- quiring whether their neighbor is liable for their child’s injury when he or she fell from a swing set or
Property owner li- ability can be caused by many events, some of which seem unlikely. A recent accident in Waukesha County illustrates this fact. In the fall of 2016, the area was ex- periencing gusty winds. At the same time, a property owner’s neighbor was cutting his grass. A gust of wind struck a stand of trees at precisely the wrong mo- ment. This gust caused a tree to blow over and fall on the neigh- bor. This caused serious injuries, leading to his death. Litigation ensued. The property owner’s potential liability comes from whether they knew or should have known that the tree was dead. Apparently, there were indications it was. Therefore, the theory of liability is that a reasonably prudent landowner would remove the dead tree, knowing that at some point, it could fall, creating a haz- ard to individuals in the area. This same logic would apply to large branches. In other words, a property owner must exercise reasonable care in paying atten- tion to the condition of their
other toy. As I explain, simply because something happens on someone’s property does not make them liable. The property owner must have done something wrong to create responsibility. As one might imagine, one of the largest areas of property owner responsibility is individu- als who slip and fall on ice and snow. I receive many phone calls each winter from individuals in- jured on someone else’s property
not required to immediately and continuously remove ice and snow during a weather event. Li- ability can be created only when an inordinate amount of time passes and nothing is done. How- ever, my experience attempting to pursue a claim against a home- owner for a fall like that has been very difficult. If the case does not settle, it will go to a jury. As one might imag- ine, jurors in Wisconsin are very
Love — Today vs Then
SonsOfLibertyRadio.com
By Bradlee Dean, Sons of Liberty April 2025
rection attended with instruction and lashing with lessoning is a happy man if God by the affliction that is upon thee shall teach thee how to loathe sin more, how to trample upon the world more, and how to walk with God more. “If thy afflictions are in love, if God shall teach thee by afflictions how to die to sin more, and how to die to thy
“Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, And teachest him out of thy Law…” – Psalm 94:12. Just recently, I saw another popular preacher, who drives the same false gospel as the others driving the same leavened narrative (Mark 8:15; Galatians 1:8), talking about the love of God. Love seems to be the popular message of many of these 1960s hippie hirelings occupy- ing the pulpits in America today (John 10:12). What’s worse is that they know nothing of the love of God (Psalm 78:9). After all, holding God’s love that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5), who has been given unto us, hates what He hates and loves what He loves (Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9). Furthermore, that love of God fulfills His Law, the Law that these despise (Amos 2:4). “To the Law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” -Isaiah 8:20. Just look to their fruit, the lawless society that they have raised up over the last 65 years, and they’re still tolerated among those who sit in their pews. How contrary to the preachers who were so used by the Lord to establish the very foundations of this country, which are quickly being effaced. Only if the congregants would look to those who have gone before them, they would then clearly see the truth of what is being written here (Hebrews 13:7). Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) was one such example. I would that the reader take note of the love in which he wrote, and consider it in contrast to what you see in the present (Jeremiah 6:16). Thomas wrote: “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, if by outward afflictions thy soul be brought more under the inward teaching of God doubtless thy afflictions are in love. “All the chastening in the world without divine teaching will never make a man blessed, the man that finds cor-
relations more, and how to die to thy self-interest more, thy af- flictions are in love. “If God shall teach thee by af- flictions how to live to Christ more, how to lift up Christ more, and how to long for Christ more, thy afflictions are in love. “If God shall teach thee by af- flictions to get assurance of a better life and to be still in a gra- cious readiness and prepared-
ness for the day of thy death thy afflictions are in love. “If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to mind heaven more, and how to be fit for heaven more thy af- flictions are in love. “If God by afflictions shall teach thy proud heart how to lie more low, and thy hard heart how to grow more humble, and thy censorious heart how to grow more charitable and thy carnal heart how to grow more spiri- tual, and thy forward heart how to grow more quiet thy afflictions are in love. “Where God loves He afflicts. In love and wherever God afflicts in love, there He will first and last teach such souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eter- nity. “If you enjoy the special presence of God with your spirits and your affliction, then your affliction is in love. Hast thou a special presence of God with thy spirit strengthening of that stilling of that satisfying of that cheering and comforting of that in the multitude of my thoughts that is of my troubled intricate and snared in- tertwined and perplexed thoughts as the branches of a tree by some strong wind are twisted one within another as the Hebrew word properly signifies thy comforts de- light my soul here is a presence of God with his soul here our comforts and delights that reach the soul here is a cordial to strengthen the spirits.”
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