Posted on 04/24/2022 4:55:23 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
The headline to a Boston Globe story this week was an attention-grabber: “Family terrorized by golf balls wins nearly $5 million from neighboring country club.”
My initial reaction was that of John McEnroe to a chair umpire when he got a ruling he disagreed with: “You cannot be serious!”
A family with three daughters, ages 2 to 5, sued Indian Pond Country Club in Kingston, Massachusetts, “for trespass over the continual bombardment — and won a permanent injunction against golf balls on their property.”
A jury awarded the Tenczars $3.5 million for damages and mental and emotional suffering. The Globe story noted that court records indicate that with interest the award totals $4.9 million.
It is golf’s version of the 1994 lawsuit where a woman sued McDonald’s for the burn she suffered from a cup of coffee and was awarded $3 million in punitive damages. Likewise, if you buy a house next to a golf course, you assume some level of risk.
As the Globe story detailed, the Tenczars purchased the brand-new four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home in Indian Pond Estates on the south shore for $750,000 in April 2017. That’s an important detail: the golf course, which opened in 2001 and was designed by Damian Pascuzzo, was there before the home. But the first time the family filled up the kiddie pool in the backyard, a stray golf ball from the 15th tee splashed in the water. So many windows were shattered that the Tenczars stopped replacing them with glass. The story includes a photo of the frowning Tenczars holding a plastic crate swimming in golf balls that have hit their house over the past several years.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
So if you buy a house that is below air traffic routes you should expect a plane to possibly fall on your home and not hold the airline accountable? If your house is near a road, and few are not, you should not hold a driver accountable if they plow into your house? I am an avid gun collector and my neighbors know it, so if I accidentally discharge a weapon in their direction then its not my fault? All of these are as rediculous as not expecting the golf course to be responsible in this case. Its the golf course owner who needs to ensure their patrons do not encroach and/or damage adjacent properties.
This wasn’t a golf ball or two. Apparently it was hundreds a month.
All the back windows of their house were repeatedly shattered, such that they replaced them with bullet proof lucite.
They couldn’t put up a net.
When they complained apparently that made them a target to drunken members.
There was an easy fix of angling the tee box that the club refused to make until they lost the lawsuit.
The article says a net was not feasible.
My aunt and uncle lived up against one, but there was a wide buffee zone between the green and the property line. They rarely had problems.
There was an advantage, which was being able to launch fireworks without worrying about nearby homes.
And the same mentality from those who buy houses in farm country then complain about manure smell and equipment working odd hours.
Why didn’t the golf course put up a green mesh net, on their side of the property. Gotta be cheaper than a $5 million judgement and legal fees.
exactly what I was thinking. I have seen the huge nets that keep balls away from the roadway. They Gold course could have done the same here , even planted tall shrubs.
Except this is a lot less like “people complaining about the airport noise” and more like “airplanes keep landing on my lawn/crashing into my house which is not part of the airport.”
Even in farm country, if the neighboring farm’s animals keep getting out on your land because your neighbor won’t keep them corralled, it is considered reasonable to sue them to keep their chattel off your property.
Just like the crazies that buy a house next to an air port and then gripe about the noise.
Put up a few no trespassing signs, pick up the golf balls that land on your property. Wash them and sell them. Used Titleists go for about $15 a dozen. If you live on a golf course that’s one of the benefits. I lived on one for three years. I still have a pretty good sized bucket of Titleists in the garage.
Top quality golf balls go for about $3 each.
I stopped making any pretense of skill at ball games in junior high. I hit a "home run" in the tennis court during PE. Out of the court and over two rows of school rooms. It rolled into the "office".
The red line is the path of the ball from the tennis court to the "office".
They must have bought a house that was about 100-200 yards on the right-hand side of the fairway. Never do that. Buy one right next to the tee box or right next to the green. Ideally on the left side. Lefties can slice just as good as righties, but there are a lot less of them!
in our town- our friend was renting a house next to a golf course- i mean right next to the T off spot- about 100 or os yards to hte right- rent was super cheap- had metal mesh over the windows- the house is now abandoned-
LOL- True that
I bought a house backing a golf course, just because it’s nice to have a green belt behind you instead of other homes. But there were at least a dozen direct hits from golf balls, causing holes in the stucco. Oh well, not too expensive to repair. I never thought of suing.
If you are going to buy a house next to a golf course, make sure it is by the tees and not the green or close to either side of the fairways.
I once saw 20 cows ambling through front yards in a subdivision grazing in flower beds and lawn grass. They broke out of a farmer’s adjoining pasture.
And the farmer is legally responsible for the damage, even if he was there first - his property is still not allowed to damage someone else’s without liability.
There’s a big difference between children/players hitting a ball onto someone’s lawn and hitting a ball through a window/denting a car/injuring a person.
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