Errant Golf Balls and Peacock Poop

This morning I sat in on a blogging webinar hosted by Kevin Boer and Pat Kitano. They covered some great stuff, but I had to chuckle when Kevin asked the students to write about how California’s errant golf ball disclosure came into being.

An errant golf ball disclosure may seem like an incredible waste of paper and resources, but that’s what happens when we live in such a litigious society.

There are anywhere from 50 to 150 pages of disclosures that are an integral part of each California real estate transaction. The one I always have fun pointing out to clients is the seemingly absurd disclosure that targets wayward golf balls.

I then feel compelled to explain that each of these disclosures is surely the result of some lawsuit–and that one can probably glean a history of California real estate litigation by going through each disclosure item.

I don’t know how the errant golf ball disclosure came into being, but I would imagine it resulted from someone like fictional Wilbert, who moved into a quiet golf course community and expected peaceful and quiet enjoyment watching the bunnies and coots on the greens and fairways.

Were bad golfers/bad golf shots never anticipated?

One morning while enjoying an early cup of Starbucks on his patio, Wilbert was bopped in the head by an errant golf ball--surely the result of some hacker’s silly slice. The knot on his head throbbed for awhile, turned colors, and he laughed while telling the story to a group of people at a cocktail gathering a week later.

In the audience was (of course) a personal injury attorney who suggested Wilbert sue the sellers of his home, along with all the real estate agencies involved. These devious home sellers and Realtors should have disclosed that bad golf shots could break windows, knock noggins and result in a collection of golf balls in the shrubbery.

Fictional Wilbert and his attorney sued the home sellers and their agent–along with his own Realtor–for failing to disclose that one of the hazards of living on a golf course is the possibility (or certainty) of errant golf balls.

Whether the case was won or lost is irrelevant.

Agents and home sellers in the State of California must now disclose the hazard of errant golf balls that could be flying anywhere in the Golden State.

But the story doesn't end there. I also heard this morning about a required local hazard disclosure in Palos Verdes about Errant Peacock Poop….

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