An Indiana property owner who had thousands of golf balls land on his land from a nearby range does not bear any liability, even though he took ownership of the property knowing that golf balls regularly land on it, the state’s appeals court ruled.
The decision hinged on differing legal standards for negligence claims and intentional torts, or deliberate harm.
In Mitchell Schultz v. S.P. Real Estate LLC, Sandy Pines Golf Club in Wheatfield, Indiana, bought land from Mr. Schultz’s brother in 2018 to open a driving range adjacent to the club’s course.
As soon as the range opened, “thousands of golf balls began to rain down on the Schultz property,” breaking windows and falling into the family’s swimming pool, the Indiana Court of Appeals said in a ruling filed Monday. After receiving complaints, the club made adjustments to the range and the balls it used, but balls still landed regularly on the Schultz property.
Mr. Schultz’s mother transferred the property to him in 2020. He then sued Sandy Pines, alleging that the golf balls constituted a trespass, among other things. A lower court agreed but assigned 95% of the fault to Mr. Schultz because he knew about the problem before taking title to the property.
The Court of Appeals ruled, however, that liability can be shared in negligence cases but not in intentional tort cases.
“Liability for an intentional tort turns on a single question: whether the tortfeasor intentionally committed the wrongful act. Intentional conduct cannot meaningfully be parsed into percentage terms — there is no such thing as acting 20% intentionally,” it ruled, reversing the lower court and remanding the case for further consideration.
