Geddes v. Mill Creek Country Club, Inc.

During years of negotiations over a 1,450-acre planned development including a golf course, the plaintiffs asked the developer (defendant) to relocate proposed homes away from their property line and replace them with a fairway instead, and to avoid building a bike path bordering their land; the plaintiffs signed a fence-construction agreement conditioned on those terms and agreed not to protest development approval if the defendant complied. After the development was completed exactly as negotiated, golf balls from the adjacent fairway regularly landed on the plaintiffs' property, and the plaintiffs sued for intentional trespass and private nuisance; the trial court found no nuisance, and the appellate court affirmed before the Illinois Supreme Court took the case.