In Leyva v. Crockett & Co.,ordered published January 25, 2017, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 1, affirmed summary judgment in favor of a golf course sued when a pedestrian walking along a public unpaved hiking and equestrian trail, located near the 13th hole and separated from the course by a six-foot-high chain link fence and a line of trees, was struck by a golf ball and injured. The golf course was the grantor of an easement along which the trail ran. The trial court ruled that the trail immunity in Government Code section 831.4 (which protects grantors of public easement) immunized the course owner from liability.
The appellate court agreed. The plaintiff contended that the lack of a higher barrier, rather than the location of the trail next to the golf course, caused the injury, and that the lack of barrier was not a condition of the trail or a faulty design. The court concluded that the plaintiff would not have been struck unless the trail was located next to the 13th hole; and it did not matter whether the location or lack of safety barrier caused the accident because the effect was the same.
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