Tort Liability of Occupiers of Land: Duties Owed to Licensees and Invitees

Before the Torts Restatement, a licensee was usually thought of as a man who, for his own purposes only, had the occupier\u27s bare permission to enter land. He was often called a bare, naked, or mere licensee, and stood between the trespasser on one hand and the invitee on the other. As a mere matter of language, however, the term licensee may be used appropriately to describe all those who enter land with the express or implied-in-fact consent of the occupier. This would include those entering to serve the occupier\u27s interest alone, to serve an interest mutual to both occupier and entrant, or to serve the entrant\u27s purposes only. It would include all those who had an invitation of one sort or another, as well as those who had nothing more than permission. The Restatenent chose this broad use of the term licensee. By doing so, it did not mean, however, to reject the familiar division between licensee and invitee ; rather it substituted the terms gratuitous licensee and business visitor, on the ground that these terms contained a more accurate reference to the proper basis for subdividing its broad licensee category. We shall use the older terminology, partly because it is still more familiar in the profession and partly because we disagree with the substantive grounds that impelled the use of the newer terms