MA Appeals Court rules errant golf balls can be a 'trespass'

A golf course may be found liable for trespass as the result of course members driving golf balls onto neighboring homeowners' properties, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled.

The plaintiffs moved into newly constructed homes in a subdivision adjacent to the ninth hole of the defendants' private golf course. They soon discovered that wayward balls struck by golfers often came onto their properties.

After unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate an acceptable solution with the defendants, the plaintiffs sued, seeking injunctive relief and damages. The trial court dismissed their complaint, finding that the plaintiffs possessed no viable claim against the defendants.

But the Massachusetts Appeals Court disagreed. It found that the continuing and frequent invasion of golf balls from the defendants' course onto the plaintiffs' properties, resulting from the ordinary conduct by the defendants' members of the golfing activity for which the defendants intend the course to be used, constitutes a continuing trespass.