A. Except as provided in subsection B, a project professional is not liable for injury to or death of a participant resulting from the inherent risks of project activity, so long as the warning contained in § 55.1-2225 is posted as required. Except as provided in subsection B, no participant or participant’s representative may maintain an action against or recover from a project professional for injury, loss, damage, or death of the participant resulting exclusively from any of the inherent risks of project activity, provided that in any action for damages against a project professional for a project activity, the project professional shall plead the affirmative defense of assumption of the inherent risks of project activity by the participant.

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Terms Used In Virginia Code 55.1-2224

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Inherent risks of project activity: means those dangers or conditions that are an integral part of a project activity, including certain hazards, such as surface and subsurface conditions; natural conditions of land, vegetation, and waters; the behavior of wild or domestic animals; and ordinary dangers of structures or equipment ordinarily used in association or time-share project operations. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
  • Participant: means any person, other than a project professional, that engages in a project activity. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
  • project: means all of the real property subject to a time-share program created by the execution of a time-share instrument. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
  • Project activity: includes swimming pools, spas, sporting venues, and cultural, historical, or harvest-your-own activities; other amenities and events; or natural activities and attractions for recreational, entertainment, educational, or social purposes. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
  • Project professional: means any person that is engaged in the business of providing one or more project activities, whether or not for compensation. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200

B. Nothing in subsection A shall prevent or limit the liability of a project professional if the project professional does any one or more of the following:

1. Commits an act or omission that constitutes negligence or willful or wanton disregard for the safety of the participant, and that act or omission proximately causes injury, damage, or death to the participant;

2. Has actual knowledge or reasonably should have known of a dangerous condition on the land or in the facilities or equipment used in the project activity, or the dangerous propensity of a particular animal used in such activity, and does not make the danger known to the participant, and the danger proximately causes injury, damage, or death to the participant; or

3. Intentionally injures the participant.

C. Any limitation on legal liability afforded by this section to a project professional is in addition to any other limitations of legal liability otherwise provided by law.

2007, c. 267, § 55-376.3; 2019, c. 712.