MA family wins $5 million verdict from country club after property hit by over 600 golf balls

[sl8]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/massachusetts-family-wins-5-million-verdict-country-club-property-hit-rcna25857

Massachusetts family wins $5 million verdict from country club after property hit by over 600 golf balls

Erik and Athina Tenczar say they lived in fear due to wayward shots —at least 651 of them in four years — coming from Indian Pond Country Club duffers
April 25, 2022, 3:58 PM EDT
By David K. Li

A Massachusetts couple won a verdict worth nearly $5 million against a local country club after suffering from the years-long, "continuous threat" of wayward golf balls struck by hackers.

A Plymouth County Superior Court jury awarded Erik and Athina Tenczar $4.93 million in December, finding that Indian Pond Country Club was at fault for not protecting the couple's home from a constant barrage of bad golfing, court records showed.

The Tenczars originally sued both Indian Pond and Spectrum Building Inc., which built their new home in Kingston, about 40 miles south of downtown Boston. They settled with the builders, leaving Indian Pond Country Club as the sole defendant.

“The continuous threat of golf ball strikes occurring at any time prevents the Tenczars from the use and enjoyment of their property,” which was purchased for $750,000 on April 27, 2017, according to the complaint.

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[Thunderbeast]

1. Junk lawsuit. Hope it gets overturned on appeal.

I am assuming that the golf course was there first. The plaintiffs enjoyed the benefits of having a well-tended landscape as a neighbor. My guess is that they would have complained mightily if a tall fence had erected.

If someone moves in next to a railroad, they have no claim for disruption. This settlement, at MOST should have been an agreement for the golf course to buy the house at fair market value.

[brush]

3. I tend to agree. Their complaint with the builder/realtor is valid...

there was no warning in the contracts signed. If theire was a warning and they signer it anyway to buy the home and moved in, that would be on them.

We'll probably hear more about this case as this situation should've been anticipated and precautions taken.

I'm a golfer and play on several courses which are surrounded by builder home developments. Buyers pay a premium to have a house on a fairway. Many owners put up high, chainlink fences to block balls from hitting their house. The houses on the right side of the fairway are the most in danger as hackers (not so good golfers), tend to slice the ball high and to the right instead of straight.

[Lochloosa]

5. My bad shot is a snap hook...FORE LEFT!

[brush]

6. You're one of the exceptions. I'm sure you know that.

Last edited Tue Apr 26, 2022, 03:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Golfers who hook are much closer to being a good golfer as a hook is not far off from a draw.

[Lochloosa]

9. 12 handicap.

[brush]

10. Not bad at all. You shoot in the '80s. Better than me.

[thucythucy]

8. I disagree.

According to the article, the solution to the problem seemed pretty easily implemented, and yet the management of the course evidently blew off the homeowners until the suit was filed. And having a golf ball blast through your bedroom window, showering a child with glass, is hardly what I'd call a benefit.

And buying the house at market value would do nothing to compensate this family for the unnecessary abuse they suffered. Not to mention, I imagine the value of the house has been much depreciated by having such shitty neighbors.

As for "well-tended landscape"--please. You mean the near constant drone of leaf blowers, weed whackers, riding mowers, not to mention the petrochemical-based fertilizers used to keep those ecological dead zones so pretty and "green?" No wonder Trump loves his courses so much, they're loud, expensive, exclusive, and damaging to the environment. What's not to love?

I'm sure the judgment will be reduced on appeal, they often are. But I'm glad to see loutish behavior get its proper come-back.

[brush]

11. If there was no warning clause in the contract, seems the complaint...

should be directed towards the builder and realtor. In fact the OP says there was a settlement with the builder.

Explain pls why you think the golf course is at fault when it was there first? I mean anyone with any sense won't build a house in the path of golf balls without warning buyers. And the buyers forewarned should not...

Do I need to finish that sentence?

[thucythucy]

12. The article says that all the management of the course had to do

was move a single tee fifteen feet to discourage golfers from attempting a short cut across the homeowners' yard. Instead, it looks like management dithered through months of smashed windows and at least one instance of a young girl almost getting mutilated by flying glass.

And yes, the builder was also at fault. This doesn't let the golf course off the hook. The management there should have fixed the problem and settled out of court. Instead, they evidently decided to be dicks about it, and will end up paying the cost.

Corporations run by dicks should not get sympathy on progressive... Do I need to finish that sentence?

[brush]

13. My money's on an appeal by the golf course.

You think the course managment are dicks, but what would you call a buyer who insists on buying a house that's on a golf course but needs a 15 foot easement so his house doesn't get hit by golf balls?

I'm a golfer and one thing I've learned is you never get any where near the path of golfers hitting balls. Golf balls can travel hundreds of yards at high speed, and many golfers are not good. Many hit right or left but rarely straignt. 15 feet is not going to solve anything. The buyer obviously knows nothing about golf, if he/she did, they never would've bought that house.

And being progressive has nothing to do with it. No, maybe it does. Most progressives have common sense...enough not to buy...oh, never mind

[thucythucy]

14. This was a failure all around.

I see the homeowners being the least at fault, if at all.

If this location was so dangerous, why was it zoned for residential?

Why was a building permit issued?

Why was the golf course allowed to operate as if the land around it was a virtual free-fire zone?

You know the cliche: your right to swing your fist stops at the end of my nose? Since when should a business be allowed to endanger the people living nearby because, hey, those folks should know better?

Does this right to a surrounding free fire zone extend beyond golf? What about folks living near a gun range? Is the occasional death by stray bullet acceptable if the owners of the range know in advance they're putting people in the surrounding area at risk? How about manufacturing? "You should have known we'd be dumping carcinogens into the air and ground and water in this neighborhood. So your kids got cancer? Tough shit."

Why didn't the management simply move the one tee a trivial fifteen feet, after being informed of the danger? Again, what kind of a jerk says, "Yeah, your daughter was almost sliced to ribbons by a problem we could easily fix. Sucks to be her."

We'll see what happens with the appeal. Luckily this is Massachusetts, where there is at least some attempt, in general, not to dick over the general public on behalf of the hopelessly entitled.

[brush]

15. The builder shouldn't have built it in that spot...

Last edited Wed Apr 27, 2022, 11:50 AM - Edit history (5)

Which is why the settlement was reached. Someone, the realtor maybe (but that would've meant no 6% comission), should've warned the buyer. The buyer should've done due diligence as the golf course was already there.

Poor decisions all around.

This situation is not uncommon. I've played on courses where homeowners all alone the right side of the fairways have erected 20-25 feet high, chain link fences between their house and the course because, you know, golf balls go everywhere. And many of the houses still have pock-marked holes in their stucco walls from you know what.

It's often joked by us duffers about how the safest place to be on a golf course is in the middle of the fairway because many golfers are wild and shots go every which-a-way. What one sees on TV with the pros hitting the ball straight down the fairway is not reality at all on courses with amateur golfers.

[Gore1FL]

4. My house backs to a golf course

The middle tee to one of the holes is about in my back yard, now, but was up a ways previously. The siding on one side my house looks like the lunar surface.

[sdfernando]

7. Just a guess here but could it be?..really?

Judge Womack?