Former golf course owners lose suit over man’s death

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1998 | 11 a.m.

Professional golfer Jim Colbert and longtime Las Vegas realtor Chuck Ruthe were ordered Monday to pay more than $115,000 to the heirs of a man who died after slipping and falling at their Sunrise Country Club golf course.

The jury in District Judge Mark Gibbons' courtroom was asked by the attorney for Vivian Christy and other heirs to give them $2 million for the February 1994 incident at the golf course pro shop that led to Peter Christy's death.

Peter Christy was retrieving his golf clubs when he fell to the ground after his spikes slipped on a cracked concrete floor. He hit his head and suffered a back injury that required surgery, according to trial testimony last week.

The surgery led to a bowel obstruction that required additional surgery. It was during the second surgery that Christy, who had been fitted with a pace maker, suffered a heart attack and died.

Jurors originally set the award at $230,000 but because Christy was in his 60s and in frail health, the jury determined that the defendants were only 50 percent responsible for his death.

The golf course behind Sam's Town hotel-casino on the Boulder Highway has since been sold to professional gambler and businessman Billy Walters and renamed the Stallion Country Club.