Sore Head said:
I was playing in a charity golf tournament on a public golf course in California standing on a tee box and was hit in the head by a fairway shot from a parallel fairway. I ended up being taken to the hospital by ambulance and am incurring some medical bills that I'd like to have paid. The golf course says it's the liability of the person who hit the shot. He's saying he doesn't carry insurance that will cover this. I think his homeowners/renters personal liability insurance should. Who pays? Thank you.
My response:
No one pays you for anything. By playing golf, and being on a golf course, you "assumed the risk" of being hit by an errant golf ball. Being hit by a stray ball is an inherent risk of golfing. [American Golf Corp. v. Super.Ct. (Becker) (2000) 79 Cal.App.4th 30, 38-39, 93 Cal.Rptr.2d 683, 689-690; See also Knight v. Jewett, 3 Cal.4th at 308, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d at 9 - discussing "primary" and "secondary" assumption of the risk]
The general legal duty owed between coparticipants in active sports is simply to avoid either intentionally injuring a coparticipant or engaging in conduct so reckless as to bring it totally outside the range of the ordinary activity involved in the sport. Coparticipants in an active sport bear no liability for injury resulting from risks inherent in the particular sport or from conduct in the course of the sport that is merely careless or negligent. The theory is that participatory sports often include accidental careless behavior;
to impose liability for such conduct would likely "chill" participation in such sporting events and alter fundamentally the nature of the sport. [Knight v. Jewett, supra, 3 Cal.4th at 316-320, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d at 14-17; Cheong v. Antablin, supra, 16 Cal.4th at 1068, 68 Cal.Rptr.2d at 862; Ford v. Gouin 3 Cal.4th at 342-345, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d at 32-34; see BAJI No. 4.70]
Sorry, but based upon your post, I see no basis for recovery and simply stated, you're out of luck.
IAAL
