Lee County

(11) ARTHUR RICHARD SALTER vs. CHARLES A. CAMPBELL (Circuit Court of Lee County, Florida)

County/Docket #/Judge: Lee / 11-CA-000514 / Alane C. Laboda

Plaintiff(s) Attorney(s): Joseph A. Linnehan and Craig R. Stevens of Morgan & Morgan, P.A., Fort Myers, FL

Defendant(s) Attorney(s): Shane T. Costello and Charles E. Reynolds, II, of Butler, Pappas, et al., LLP, Tampa, FL

Age/Sex/Occupation Of Plaintiff: 76 / M / Maintenance Worker at the El Rio Golf Course in Fort Myers

Cause Of Injury: Negligence/Maintenance Worker Struck by Golf Ball While in Golf Cart/Loss of Eye. On April 7, 2010, plaintiff Arthur Salter was working as a maintenance worker at the El Rio Golf Course in Fort Myers. Defendant Charles Campbell was playing a round of golf with three friends at El Rio. When defendant was teeing off from the 10th tee, plaintiff was a passenger in a golf cart driven by the maintenance superintendent down a cart path between the 10th fairway and the driving range, towards the direction of the 10th tee and the golfers on the driving range. Neither defendant nor his partners saw the cart approaching, and defendant teed off. He and his golfing partners were unable to follow the ball off of his club. Moments later, they heard a sound and looked off to the left of the fairway, approximately 110 yards down, and noticed the golf cart for the first time. Plaintiff had been struck by a golf ball in the left eye and fallen out of the cart.

Plaintiff claimed that defendant was negligent in the manner in which he was playing golf, and either saw or should have seen plaintiff approaching in the cart, and should have refrained from striking the ball. Plaintiff further claimed that upon striking the ball, defendant should have yelled "fore" in order to warn plaintiff.

Defendant denied he was negligent, claiming that he never saw the cart, and that there was no reason he should have seen the cart in the exercise of reasonable care. He further denied a duty to yell “fore” if he did not see where the ball was going or that a person might be in an area of danger.

Defendant alleged that the maintenance superintendent was negligent as a non-party defendant, in that he knew defendant was preparing to take his shot and yet he continued to drive into an area where the ball might travel. Defendant alleged that plaintiff was comparatively negligent, as he knew this was a dangerous area yet never looked toward the golfers on the 10th tee. Furthermore, Defendant argued that maintenance workers on the golf course must yield the right of way to golfers preparing to take their shots.

Defendant also argued that this area of the golf course constituted a dangerous condition, and alleged the negligence of the non-party defendant El Rio Golf Course in failing to correct this dangerous condition. The driving range and 10th hole were side by side, only divided by this cart path, and evidence showed that balls from the driving range and 10th tee constantly crossed back and forth over this cart path. However, the golf course never took any actions to remedy this situation or instructed their employees not to use this cart path.

Defendant further argued that there were golfers on the driving range striking balls at the time of the incident. There were no witnesses who saw the ball of the defendant strike the Plaintiff, so there was a lack of evidence regarding whether defendant's ball was the proximate cause of the harm versus the balls coming from the driving range.

Nature Of Injury: Blunt trauma and ruptured globe to the left eye, a left upper eye lid laceration, and an orbital floor wall fracture in the left eye; surgery consisting of enucleation (removal) of the left eye, orbital implant, repair of orbital floor fracture, repair of upper eyelid laceration, and temporary tarsorrhaphy; prosthetic eye was put in place; necessity for new prosthetic every two to three years and a revision surgery about five to ten years after initial surgery; limited peripheral vision and depth perception.

Expert Witnesses: 
Plaintiff's:
Stephen J. Laquis, M.D., Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, Fort Myers, FL
Srinivas Kadiyala, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Tampa, FL

Defendant's:
Michael Johnstone, AIA, Golf Course Architecture, Etowah Valley, NC
David Lindner, D.O., Pulmonology, Naples, FL

Verdict: For Defendant on Nov. 7, 2012.

Judgment: For Defendant on Nov. 19, 2012.

Editor's Note: The parties entered into a high/low agreement during the course of trial, with a high of $300,000 and a low of $35,000.