Hearing Of Injunction Action Against Golf Club Resumed

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29263, 22 July 1960, Page 16

Hearing Of Injunction Action Against Golf Club Resumed

In evidence the plaintiff said that since the adjournment of the case on July 1 she had cleared her garden and collected the balls which had since come over the fence. She produced a travelling bag containing 73 balls —35 of which she had collected from among the grass and shrubs

WELLINGTON, July 21. The hearing was resumed this morning of the civil action brought against the Paraparaumu i Beach Golf Club by lima Priscilla Oakley-Tinunins. a widow, of Ocean road, Paraparaumu, in which she claims £ 100 general damages and £lO Ils 6d special damages and an injuction against the club to abate the nuisance of golf balls being driven off the course in to her property, but was again adjourned to allow Mr J. B. Thomson, S.M., and counsel to inspect the site. Mr L. G. Rose is appearing for Mrs Oakley-Timmins and Mr B. N. Vickerman for the club. Alexander Barrett Miller, a barrister and solicitor, said in evidence that he had been a member of the club since 1956 and had been playing there since that time in 1957, he said, he hit a ball over the fence and in to the plaintiff’s property. He went around the road, walked up the drive of the plaintiff’s house and asked for his ball back. Mrs Oakley-Timmins declined to give it back to him, and her husband ordered him to leave the property. •‘Hit Me On Jaw”

“I protested that they had no right to keep my ball. He got very angry and eventually hit me on the jaw.” the witness said. Cross-examined by Mr Rose, the witness said that he did not think it would be possible to shift the ninth tee past the plaintiff’s house.

Maurice Prescott Mabin, a club committee member and a regular player at the course, said that he kept watch at the ninth tee from 9.10 a.m. until 10.40 a.m. During that time, he said, one golf ball was driven over the fence on to the road, and one was driven into the bottom of the plaintiff’s garden from a fairway shot. The president of the club, Douglas Ogilvie Whyte, said that he was watching at the ninth tee from 1.30 p.m. until darkness on Sunday, July 3. Three balls went over the course boundary, one of which came to rest in the plaintiff’s garden near the edge of the road.

A notice was posted at the beginning of the tee asking players to report all balls that went over the fence into the plaintiff’s property. One was reported on July 16, and three on the following day. He said that one of those which went over on July 17 landed not far from Mrs Oakley-Timmins. Plaintiff’s Evidence

(New Zealand Pres* Association)

i when she was clearing the section, 26 which had landed since July 1. and 12 others which could have been there or could have come over. She said that she still had the suitcase containing 437 balls which she produced in court at the first hearing on June 29. ••The fact that balls are continuing to come over worries me very much,” she said. "As far as the club is concerned we have managed to live in peace and harmony for a number of years with the neighbours,” said Mr Vickerman. in summing up. “It is unfortunate that arguments between neighbours do go to such extreme lengths.” he said. “I can see no possible objection to an adjournment so long as it is limited to seeing the ground with a view to better appreciation of the evidence,” said the Magistrate in saying he would inspect the area.