After reading the case between Stuart Zeidman and Troy Fisher, I found that there were several things wrong with the initial decision made by the court. The trial court decided that Mr. Zeidman had taken it upon himself to throw caution to the wind, and assumed the risk of being injured on the golf course. Since Zeidman and his fellow teammates had an agreement that he was to go ahead and make sure the green was clear, before they took their shots, it seems only logical that he was under the impression that his teammates would wait until he returned, before playing on. However, Mr. Fisher did not wait until Zeidman returned and took his shot anyway. Due to the negligence of Mr. Fisher, Mr. Zeidman suffered severe and permanent injuries after being hit in the face with a stray ball.
According to the text, “assumption of risk requires that the injured party knew or should have known that a risk of harm was inherent and the injured party voluntarily participated in the activity” (pg. 279), this was not necessarily the case in this situation. As mentioned before, Zeidman was under the assumption that his teammates would wait for his safe return; before resuming their game. This clearly shows that, while he was entering the playing field, there should have been little risk involved, because the other players were supposed to be waiting for him. Also, according to proper golf etiquette; players should be aware of their surroundings and be sure that no one is in a position to be hit with a club, ball, or flying debris (USGA, 2015). Zeidman was just trying to be proactive, in safety regulations, by assuring no one was at risk of being injured, while Fisher was completely disregardful of any safety rules at all.
Fisher owed Zeidman and his other teammates a general duty of reasonable conduct, by not exposing them to senseless risk. The fact that Zeidman could have possibly been injured by a fluke shot was reasonably foreseeable, considering he was in the...