Philmont Country Club near Huntingdon Valley was ordered by a Philadelphia jury to pay $9.1 million to the family of Justin Riegel, writes Abraham Gutman for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Riegel was killed during a storm by a falling tree at the country club where he was the director of golf.
Riegel died in June 2020 after a 90-year-old oak tree crashed into the cart barn of Philmont Country Club. His widow Kate Hannon sued the club on behalf of their son, born weeks after Riegel’s death.
The case centered around the sequence of events that led Riegel to the cart barn and whether or not the courts could hold the club liable.
On the day he died, Riegel helped clear carts after the club suspended golf play midmorning due to an approaching storm. The family’s lawyers argued that if the Philmont cleared the course earlier, Riegel would not have been in danger.
“Concert Golf didn’t create the storm,” said David Kwass, a partner with Saltz, Mongeluzzi, & Bendesky. “But they could have known about it earlier and could have prepared for it.”
Read more about Philmont Country Club in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on MONTCO Today in September 2024.
