Judge strikes down golf club expulsions
8 Aug 05
Objection to planning proposal in which club had interest not a breach of club rules
Three members of a golf club who objected to plans for a new clubhouse had their expulsions from the club overturned by a judge today.
Ian and Jennifer Wiles had objected along with Margaret Allan to proposals lodged by Bothwell Castle Golf Club with South Lanarkshire Council for a new clubhouse.
After the old clubhouse was destroyed by fire, the club proposed to build a new one in a different location and to sell part of its land for housing in order to finance the plan. After receiving neighbour notification, Mr and Mrs Wiles objected on the basis of congestion and loss of amenity woodland. Mrs Allan lodged a similar objection.
The club considered that the trio had acted directly against its interests and therefore contrary to its constitution, and its committee voted to expel them. But Lord Glennie in the Court of Session held that all three had acted legitimately to protect their own interests, and upheld a petition for judicial review to strike down the expulsions.
In his opinion the judge said that conduct which was itself unobjectionable did not become relevant conduct for the purposes of the club's constitution simply because it comes up against the interests of the club. Here there was nothing vindictive or irrational about the three members' opposition, which was not done to spite the club. "It was done with the aim not of impeding the club's development but of protecting their own rights and interests."
The club had conceded that the conduct and acts of the petitioners were in themselves entirely unobjectionable. "They only became the focus of objection from the committee because the proposal to which the petitioners took exception itself came from the club. But that is not enough, in my opinion, to render the petitioners' conduct and acts susceptible to the disciplinary jurisdiction of the committee."
Lord Glennie's opinion can be read at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/P1105.html .