Court Opinion

ID: 9707030
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:59:15.619101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:27.177245
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Musmanno:
Richard L. Taylor, 20 years of age, was employed as a caddy at the Churchill Valley Country Club in Allegheny County. His duties seemed innocuous enough. His job was to carry golf clubs, hand the proper one, more or less, to the player for whom he caddied, follow the flight of the balls lofted by the player and then search in bushes, ponds, sand, and other intended or unintended terrain for the released burrowing missile.
As harmless, tranquil, and serene as a golf course may seem to the casual observer, it can, on occasion, become as dangerous as a pocket in a jungle battle in Vietnam. On July 5, 1959, while occupying a little bridge in the middle of the golf course, young Richard found himself amid a fusillade of fiercely driven golf balls. One of them hit him in the head with the impact of a bullet, fracturing his skull and rendering him hors de combat for a long period of time.
He brought suit against the Churchill Valley Country Club and was nonsuited. He appealed, and this Court affirms the nonsuit, stating that the plaintiff did not prove any negligence. Negligence is simply the failure to do what may be reasonably anticipated to be necessary to avoid injurying others. Did the defendant do all that was necessary, in the circumstances, to save the plaintiff from harm?
*272I am not a golf player, as is the writer of the Majority Opinion who, I am informed, is exceedingly skillful and graceful on the golf links. Thus, I do not know from personal experience what I lose in not having the fun of breathing the refreshing breezes of a country club, enjoying the intoxicating ecstacy of a “double eagle,” and reveling in the salubrious effects of tramping over beautiful greenswards and by enchanting lakes. But, despite that absence of personal golf experience, I am sufficiently acquainted with the nature of the game, and am helplessly exposed to the enthusiastic garrulity which accompanies all meetings of golfers to such an extent that I must perforce realize that, mixed in with the felicity of the sport, goes considerable hazard apart from the over-indulging temptations of the 19th hole.
The young plaintiff in this case was compelled to take up a position at a bridge over a creek, there to observe the trajectory of golf spheroids being driven by players on the 17th hole. Possessed, like all normal human beings, with only one pair of eyes and thus being able to look only in one direction at a time, he failed to see the golfer, who, standing at a point about 45 yards in front of the 17th teeing ground, struck with such a fancy swing that the hard rubber pellet, traveling with the force of a cannon ball, but with the indecision of a temperamental bee gathering honey, landed on the head of the caddy who had to be wary of other golfers also firing at and about the bridge with their hooking, slicing and dubbing shots.
Bichard Taylor averred in his complaint that Churchill Valley Country Club was negligent in not having erected at this Fort Sumter of its golf course a screen which would receive and accommodate the erratic bombardment of the less artistic golfers. He stated also that the defendant was negligent in requiring him to take up a position in the direct line of fire *273of the 17th hole sharpshooters; further, that the defendant was negligent in the manner in which it laid out the golf course, namely, that the area separating the 15th and 17th fairways was so narrow that the caddies were unable to stay at a safe and sufficient distance from the mortar fire of the golfers driving desperately toward the refreshments of the 19th hole.
A professional golfer testified that there was no screen at the 17th hole, although one reared its protecting expanse at the 18th tee, this plainly demonstrating that the defendant was fully aware of the necessity for screens at the more dangerous sectors of the teeing and putting battlefront. He testified further that he had seen protective screens at other well-maintained golf links.
Thus, it seems to me that it became a clear question of fact for the jury to determine whether the defendant had maintained its golf grounds in accordance with the highest standards of safety generally recognized in this game, which has been declared the sport of kings and the ruination of many a conference because of the absence therefrom of expected bankers, lawyers and business men.
After being hit by a golf ball on the Churchill Talley Country Club golf course, the plaintiff came into court and was hit again, this time with the mashie iron of a nonsuit, even before he had a chance to drive onto the green of a jury deliberation. Being forced into the sand trap of a nonsuit, the plaintiff was denied an opportunity to enter into the fairway of his litigation. I believe this is not a fair way to dispose of a suit in trespass.
Accordingly, I yell “Fore!” and dissent.