Court hears lawsuit about alligator attack

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The evening before her body was found floating in the water, 83-year-old Gwyneth Williams was likely out looking for her daughter's dog near one of the many lagoons that cut through The Landings, the exclusive resort community on Skidaway Island.

After an autopsy, a medical examiner determined Williams died Oct. 5, 2007, from massive bleeding caused by an alligator attack. A trapper soon found an 8-footalligator in the same lagoon and, after killing it, found Williams' limbs still inside its stomach.

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court heard lively arguments in a closely watched property rights case involving a lawsuit by Williams' heirs against The Landings Club and its homeowners association. The family believes The Landings, located south of Savannah, should have done more to protect its residents, members and guests from alligators and should therefore be held liable for Williams' death.

But lawyers for The Landings said a legal doctrine shields property owners from unexpected attacks by indigenous wild animals.

"They're unpredictable, they're uncontrollable," John Foster, a lawyer for the homeowners association, said of alligators.

Because Williams had previously told family members she had seen two alligators by the roadside at The Landings, it was reasonable for her to know there were alligators in the lagoons, Foster said. "If you go walking around at night, you don't know what you might find," he said.

Courts across the nation have grappled with similar lawsuits, such as those involving a bear attack at a roadside stop in Alaska, swarming bees in New Hampshire and elk entering Arizona highways.

Williams, who lived in Ontario, was house-sitting for her daughter and son-in-law while they were traveling in Italy. After she went looking for their dog after 9 p.m., several boys reported hearing a woman crying for help. Her body was found the next day in a lagoon near the seventh hole of one of The Landings' six golf courses.

Bart Turner, a lawyer for Williams' family, said The Landings created an environment that attracted alligators into the community when it carved out 151 lagoons to allow for water drainage from the low-lying area. "It's the perfect habitat for alligators," he said.

The Landings should have done more to prevent alligators from becoming a threat and should have warned residents and guests about them, he said.

Workers had seen two to three alligators sunbathing in a golf course sand trap next to the lagoon where Williams' body was found, Turner said. In the month following her death, more than a dozen alligators, including one that was more than 10 feet long and weighed more than 300 pounds, were trapped in the lagoons, he said.

But Foster told the court that alligator attacks are extremely rare. He said there had been no report of an alligator attack on a human at The Landings since it was established in 1972. He cited records reporting that only nine people in Georgia were attacked by alligators from 1948 through 2004.

The Landings has a policy to trap and remove alligators that are at least 7 feet long or which show aggression, he said. Over one 4 1/2-year period, 91 alligators were removed from the property, he said.

But there is no stopping alligators from entering the lagoons that cut through The Landings, Foster told the court. "Their existence cannot be prevented short of paving it over or putting up fences there, ideas that are either illegal or not feasible."