Briton sues for golf ball injury in Hong Kong

Mar 8, 2011, 5:36 GMT

Hong Kong - A Briton is suing a fellow golfer for 1.2 million US dollars in Hong Kong after being hit on the head by wayward shot, a news report said Tuesday.

Computer specialist Alan Deakins, 42, claims he has been unable to work and is still receiving treatment for the injuries he suffered after the was hit on the forehead by a golf ball on 23 December 2006 at the upmarket Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club.

Deakins, who at the time worked for an international investment bank in Hong Kong, claims fellow golfer Humphrey Leung Kwong-wai was negligent in launching the ball and should be liable for the medical fees accumulated as a result of his injury.

His lawyers claims the shot left Deakins with brain damage and as a result he had not worked in five years, said the report in the South China Morning Post.

Leung, a chief executive of microchip company Solomon Systech, is disputing the claim at a hearing which began Monday at the Court of First Instance.

In 1999, a woman caddie was awarded 89,000 Hong Kong dollars (11,500 US dollars) after she was struck in the mouth by a golf ball hit by the golfer she was helping at the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Read more about Curiosity

Read more about HongKong Justice