Joseph Lareau alleged he was injured in 2009 while walking on a wet carpet on a footbridge at the Bridgewater, N.J., property, claiming the defendants had “failed to provide a ‘safe walking path for pedestrians.’” Appellate judges found that the defendant could not be held liable due to the Landowner’s Liability Act, which grants immunity to lands used for sport and recreational activities.

A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the Somerset County Park Commission and the Green Knoll Golf Course by a man who claimed he slipped and fell on the Bridgewater, N.J., property, the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.

Joseph Lareau alleged he was injured on March 1, 2009, while walking on a wet carpet on a footbridge at the golf course, and claimed the defendants had “failed to provide a ‘safe walking path for pedestrians,’” according to the appellate decision released on Wednesday.

But the appellate judges affirmed a lower court’s ruling and found the commission and golf course could not be held liable in light of a state law granting immunity for lands used for sport and recreational activities, the Star-Ledger reported.

That law, known as the Landowner’s Liability Act, indicates a landowner “owes no duty to keep the premises safe for entry or use by others for sport and recreational activities, or to give warning of any hazardous condition of the land or in connection with the use of any structure or by reason of any activity on such premises to persons entering for such purposes.”

In explaining how the statute applies to the golf course, the appellate decision notes the law provides immunity to rural and semi-rural or open tracts of land, even if the property is used as part of a commercial enterprise, the Star-Ledger reported.

Green Knoll Golf Course is one of five golf courses operated by the Somerset County Park Commission, the Star-Ledger reported.

On the day of the alleged incident, Lareau had been walking along the golf course with his father-in-law and his son-in-law, the decision states. The group entered the course by way of a row of hedges on the edge of an adjacent condominium complex, the Star-Ledger reported.

Lareau had been looking to calibrate his father-in-law’s global-positioning-system device, the decision stated.