The color purple can have many meanings in Louisiana. If the priest is wearing purple vestments while celebrating Mass, then it is either Advent, in which case it is time to break out the Elf on the Shelf and start baking Christmas cookies for your friends at work, or Lent, in which case it is time to put the Mardi Gras masks back in the attic and invite your friends for a crawfish boil. A cake with purple icing is one of the most affordable and least dangerous baby gender reveal stunts in the repertoire of Southern sorority alumnae, so whether the cake inside is pink or blue, the baby will be blessed to have a mother who understands that ostentation is not everything.
If you see purple and gold in combination, you know you are dealing with an LSU fan. Once you add green to those colors, you have the color scheme of Mardi Gras, as every Louisiana resident knows. What does it mean when there are apparently formless markings of purple paint on trees and fence posts in the middle of nowhere? For help understanding purple paint laws and other aspects of premises liability law, contact a Houma personal injury lawyer.
Purple Paint Means Private Property
Think about the color scheme of Louisiana’s forests and bayous, the shades of green, brown, and gray. It is perfect for alligators to camouflage themselves. Now imagine that you started walking away from the water’s edge, realizing that if there were alligators lurking below the surface, you probably would not see them because they blend in so well with the mud and the algae. Wouldn’t it be a surprise to see a stripe of purple paint on a tree in these surroundings?
You might at first chalk it up to a stray Mardi Gras decoration, but purple paint on trees has legal significance in Louisiana, as it does in some other states. Purple paint marks the boundaries of private property; it warns visitors that they are trespassing. Lawmakers chose purple because it stands out in the natural environment, and because colorblind people can see that it is a colorful marking, even if they cannot see the difference between red and green. Rain and high winds can easily destroy “no trespassing” signs, but paint is more durable.
In premises liability cases, this matters because it makes a difference whether you were trespassing when you suffered an accidental injury on someone else’s property. Premises liability laws protect business invitees and licensees, in other words, customers and vendors, but they generally do not protect trespassers. The only way you can prevail in a premises liability claim if you were trespassing when you got injured is if the owner of the property injured you on purpose.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Motorcycle Accident Cases
A personal injury lawyer can help you if you were injured in an accident on private property that looked like wilderness. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.
Sources
https://www.yahoo.com/news/see-purple-paint-stop-walking-225735940.html
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