A friendly round of golf between two doctors took an unfortunate turn when plaintiff Azad Anand was struck in the eye by an errant shot struck by his friend, defendant Anoop Kapoor.

In Anand v. Kapoor, New York’s Second Department Court granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, holding that the plaintiff assumed the risk of being struck by an errant shot when he voluntarily participated in the game. The Court held that, even if there was no assumption of the risk, the plaintiff was at such a “great an angle away from the defendant and the intended line of flight that he was not in the foreseeable danger zone.” Thus, the defendant owed no duty to plaintiff to warn him of his intent to hit the ball.

Some may say that the Court simply took pity on the defendant, in not adding insult to injury for defendant’s bad shot. In any event, the decision gives the struggling golfer one less worry.

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2009/D19706.pdf