A woman has filed a lawsuit saying she was injured by a golf ball that flew through her car window and hit her face while she was driving along Beach Drive next to the Victoria Golf Club last June.
Evelyn Mohr filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, naming the Victoria Golf Club, District of Oak Bay and golfer Kane Wyatt as defendants.
Mohr says in the suit that she was driving on Beach Drive on June 4, 2023, when she was struck by a golf ball that came through her open car window.
She alleges Wyatt negligently hit the golf ball.
The document also says that the district and club were negligent or in breach of their duty and that they failed to warn people there was a danger of being hit by golf balls in the area, and that they failed to take reasonable care to protect against errant golf balls, or erect netting to catch golf balls.
The club was designed in such a way that individuals are at risk of being injured, the claim says.
Mohr alleges she suffered facial lacerations, a concussion, cognitive deficits, an increased risk for degenerative changes including dementia, nausea, eye and neck injuries, anxiety, emotional liability, psychological injuries and chronic pain and fatigue.
The claim says the incident has affected her earning ability and shortened her working life.
She is seeking general, special and aggravated damages.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch said Tuesday that he was unable to comment on the lawsuit.
The golf club did not return Glacier Media’s request for comment by deadline.
Wyatt’s father said a request for comment would be forwarded to the family’s lawyer, but no response was received.
The Victoria Golf Club, founded in 1893, is bisected by Beach Drive. On Tuesday afternoon, golfers were on the 18-hole course while walkers strolled along the sidewalk on the east side of Beach Drive.
A sign showing an image of a golfer and the words “caution errant golf balls” and “park at your own risk” was posted on the far east side of the sidewalk, north of the intersection at Newport Avenue. A strip of grass runs between the road and sidewalk.
The golf course has had at least three different layouts, the club’s website says. The latest was finalized in the 1920s “after a decision in 1923 to end the practice of hitting tee shots on two holes across the ever-busier Beach Drive.”
The course, one section of which borders the waterfront, is the oldest 18-hole golf course in Canada in its original location and the second-oldest in North America, the website says.
— With a file from Carla Wilson, Times Colonist
