$5 mil for Golf ball damage

[Boston-Sean]

No word on what the "solution" is. Other than fattening the homeowners bank account.

Massachusetts family awarded $5M for golf ball damage to home (https://www.wcvb.com/article/kingston-massachusetts-5-million-golf-ball-damage-home/39831073)

[tophcfa]

What did the friggin idiots expect when they bought or built a house adjacent to a fairway. If the house was there first and then the course was built, they have an argument, otherwise, live with it. The same thing happened to the Chicopee Country Club in western Massachusetts. A beautiful par four had to be permanently changed to a par three and the course is no longer an official par 72 Championship layout, all because some idiot bought a house on a golf course and never expected stray golf balls to come their way.

[Bill14564]

What did the friggin idiots expect when they bought or built a house adjacent to a fairway. If the house was there first and then the course was built, they have an argument, otherwise, live with it. The same thing happened to the Chicopee Country Club in western Massachusetts. A beautiful par four had to be permanently changed to a par three and the course is no longer an official par 72 Championship layout, all because some idiot bought a house on a golf course and never expected stray golf balls to come their way.

There are stray golf balls and then there are 700 golf balls (or 26 windows or the entire siding or...) in the course of a few years. That house should never have been built or the course should have been designed differently from the start. There is no way that situation was acceptable.

[Mortal1]

Owners beware! If you are foolish enough to build on a golf course then either expect damage or put up a driving range net.

[Laker14]

I have a few questions that aren't addressed in that article, or any other that I read following the Google search.
Generally, I'd agree that if you bought the house after the golf course was built, or the house was built after the golf course was built, then I would have expected that it SHOULD be a case of assumed liability. I'm not an attorney and my knowledge of this is based only upon the most casual of conversations with attorneys.
But, what if...what if the building of the course and the development of the adjacent properties were all done under one authority. Perhaps that authority would be exposed to a negligence suit.

And wondering some more, what if the ultimate authority was one person, but the golf course and the real estate were developed under two separate LLCs...

and my 3rd thought...can jury verdicts in civil cases be reversed by a judge on appeal...I have no idea. I'll ask one of my attorney friends.

[Garywt]

The course was there 10 or so years before these people moved in. $3.5 mil for stress. I agree with covering the $100,000 in damage and then put a huge net up between the fairway and the house.

[thevillages2013]

No word on what the "solution" is. Other than fattening the homeowners bank account.

Massachusetts family awarded $5M for golf ball damage to home (https://www.wcvb.com/article/kingston-massachusetts-5-million-golf-ball-damage-home/39831073)

I heard their winter home is in TV backing up to the turnpike! CHOICES! Putting holes in fiber cement siding like that seems like it was done on purpose from close range. Or just maybe Shankapotamous is a member at the club