"Minnesota woman loses suit resulting from golf course mishap" from the September 21, 1978 Door County Advocate
Minnesota woman loses suit resulting from golf course mishap
A Minnesota woman was unsuccessful in her suit for damages resulting from a 1974 golf cart accident in Peninsula State Park.
Although a 12-member Brown county jury ruled that $50,000 would compensate Dorothy Wanous of Owatonna, Minn., for injuries received in the mishap and also voted $13,300 to her husband, the award was denied because the jury also found that Mrs. Wanous was mainly at fault for the accident. Under state law, an award is denied if the defendant is found partly negligent.
Mrs. Wanous and her husband Leo sought $100,000 in damages for injuries she received in the mishap. The award to her husband included $7,300 for medical expenses and $6,000 for loss of "service, society and companionship of his wife."
After a week long trial in Brown County Circuit Court, the jury ruled negligence on the part of Mrs. Wanous and three of the four defendants.
Named as defendants were Gary Patzke, Peninsula park superintendent and manager; Bruce Chevis, assistant superintendent; Herbert Ray, greenskeeper, and Rolf Halversen, who supervised the golf course until the end of March, 1974.
Mrs. Wanous was found 61 per cent negligent, Patzke and Halversen each 15 per cent and Ray nine per cent.
The complaint charged that park officials were negligent in that they failed to erect proper signs telling of a dangerous pathway from the eighth tee to the eighth green "where there was a sharp hairpin turn and a several foot dropoff."
According to the complaint Mrs. Wanous' golf court veered off the pathway and she sustained severe injuries to her pelvis and legs and also suffered shock.
[author not stated]
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive