Steven Albert Maher and Rebecca Maher, Husband and Wife v. United States

Opinion by Judge SNEED; Dissent by Judge NORRIS.

SNEED, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents a single question of law: Is a plaintiff who enters federal land to work a mining claim an invitee or a licensee under Arizona tort law? The district court held that the plaintiff in this case was a licensee. We affirm.

I

In August 1989, Steven Maher was injured on federal land in the Black Hills Rockhound *1041Area when an access road gave way underneath the backhoe he was driving, causing the vehicle to roll down an embankment. The road was among several thousand miles of dirt roads running through federal…