$1.4-Million Payment OKd for Man Hit by Golf Ball
A Los Angeles City Council committee has given preliminary approval to a $1.4-million settlement for a truck driver who claimed that the brain damage he suffered was caused by an errant golf ball from a city course.
Joseph Coutts sued the city after the ball went awry on Oct. 23, 1987, from the popular Harding Golf Course in Griffith Park and hit his 18-wheel Burger King delivery truck on the nearby Golden State Freeway.
Coutts’ attorney said the ball went through the right side window and hit Coutts in the head, but the official report by Assistant City Atty. John Neville said it shattered the windshield. Coutts lost consciousness and the truck careened off the freeway and rammed into a tree.
Neville told the Budget and Finance Committee that Coutts, 35, has received extensive medical treatment for brain damage, seizures, depression and other medical problems since the accident. The golfer who hit the ball was never found.
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