A Circuit Court jury will resume deliberations today on whether to award about $14 million to a 79-year-old man who was paralyzed in a fall of 15 to 20 feet from the elevated first tee late at night at the Mid-Pacific Country Club.
Amar Sappal, who was a guest at the private club, is suing Mid-Pacific for what his lawyers said were dangers related to the elevated tee in the illuminated area that the management knew was used by golfers at night.
Sappal was with his son, Sanjeev, a club member, and another member when the automatic sprinkler went off at about 11 p.m. June 30, 2009, knocking Sappal backward down a slope and over the edge of the elevated tee, his lawyers maintain.
Mid-Pacific is denying any liability, pointing out that there never has been a problem with the elevated tee, which has been a feature of the Lanikai course since it opened in 1928.
Mid-Pacific lawyers also questioned Sappal’s version about the sprinkler stunning him, suggested he was intoxicated, and said Sappal was familiar with the elevated tee from playing at the course previously.
The jurors heard both sides’ closing arguments Tuesday morning to cap a trial spanning five weeks in Circuit Judge Gary Chang’s courtroom.
The panel deliberated in the afternoon and will return to court this morning.
Sappal, confined to a wheelchair and paralyzed below his torso, is the former board chairman of the Honolulu Public Transit Authority.
His attorney, Michael Livingston, told the jury Sappal is considered by many the "father of rapid transit in Hawaii" and that his company had been poised to help in the development of the current rail project.
On the day he fell, Sappal played a round of golf in a foursome that included his son and club member David Anderson and went to the clubhouse for drinks and food until about 10:30 p.m.
His son and Anderson then went to the nearby putting green adjacent to the tee for another round of betting in a pitching contest with wedges, Livingston said.
After the contest, Sappal followed his son to the first tee where the son wanted to hit an "aloha" ball, the final shot of the night, when the sprinkler unexpectedly went off, Livingston said.
Livingston said no other golf course in Hawaii has an elevated tee next to the clubhouse.
He argued that the management could have easily prevented the mishap by posting warning signs, turning out the floodlights from the clubhouse or closing access to the area.
Livingston said Sappal had been drinking but showed no signs of intoxication or impairment.
Arthur Roeca, Mid-Pacific’s attorney, told the jurors that 60,000 golfers a year use the first tee at the course and that there never have been any other accidents.
Sappal was an experienced golfer who played at the private club in the past, Roeca said.
He said witnesses testified that the latest golfers would chip and putt was about 7:30 to 8 p.m., but not 11 p.m., when the sprinklers at the tee area would go off automatically three times a week because no one would be there.
"People don’t play golf at nighttime," he said.
Roeca also questioned Sappal’s scenario by pointing out that reports by a paramedic and a social worker about the incident did not mention the sprinkler.
"We don’t know what happened," Roeca told the jury.
He said Sappal usually has one glass of wine but acknowledged that he drank a Guinness beer and three or four glasses of wine during the five hours at the clubhouse.
The accident was not foreseeable, Roeca said, and Mid-Pacific should not be held responsible for the injury.
Livingston told the panel his client incurred about $7 million in special damages that includes medical expenses, loss of income and the costs of future 24-hour care.
He suggested the same amount for general damages that would cover pain and suffering.
The lawyer said another way to calculate general damages would be to award $3 million from the time of the fall until now and $1 million annually for the rest of Sappal’s life.
Roeca did not address damages, but urged the jury not to find his client negligent.
