Wayne Country Day sued by neighbor over home run balls

Editor’s note: The following story appeared in the Oct. 1 edition of Wayne Week. Because of the demand for this week’s paper, we have decided to release this piece online, but in the future, while a limited number of copies are the paper are available across the community, the only way to guarantee you receive a copy is to subscribe (a link to the one-year subscription is available at the bottom of the story).

For the better part of the last decade, the script has been recurring — dominant performances against conference foes, deep playoff runs that result in title shots, and players who sign to take their talents to the next level.

But in recent months, the Wayne Country Day baseball program has faced an opponent they can’t defeat with line drives, longballs, and strikeouts — a foe their school must face outside the diamond in a courtroom.

The Chargers, who won a state championship in 2021 and have been a perennial power since the 2016-17 season, didn’t even get to play on their home field this past season.

Instead, they opted to pay to play at the C35 Sports Complex.

The reason?

A homeowner who claims deep shots over the fence agitate his combat-induced post-traumatic stress disorder.

A lawsuit filed Aug. 9 and obtained by Wayne Week details the resident’s case against WCDS.

Here’s what retired Army Brig. Gen. Ralph Griffin claims:

Griffin and his wife own a home located at 411 Tryon Drive — property that “shares a boundary” with Wayne Country Day.

At the time they purchased the property, there was a “mature line of trees” along the boundary, but the trees had to be removed “in order to accommodate drainage equipment necessary for the building permitting process in order to construct the Griffin’s home.”

With the trees gone, baseballs hit during WCDS practices and games “regularly and repeatedly cross over the property boundary,” and have “caused and continue to cause property damage to the Griffin’s home and property.”

But the allegations don’t stop there.

The lawsuit alleges that Griffin, having served in the Army for nearly 40 years — service that included stints in three different “theaters of war” — developed post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that has been exacerbated by the stress caused by his issues with the Wayne Country Day baseball team.

It goes on to allege that since 2018, when balls land in his yard and “collide with his house,” the veteran “begins to experience increased symptoms and interruptions from his PTSD,” including “disrupted sleep, restlessness, increased fear, nightmares, and traumatic flashbacks to service-related memories of explosions.”

Griffin, according to his attorneys, attempted to “resolve the matter amicably” back in 2018.

And the school installed a net along the boundary of the two properties.

But the lawsuit claims the net “is simply not high enough to prevent the regular and repeated trespass of baseballs hit by (WCDS) players and other baseball teams.”

Here is what the suit is asking for:

• The first claim for relief is for what the lawsuit alleges is “Trespass to Real Property.” Griffin is seeking damages in the amount of “in excess of $25,000.”

• The second claim for relief is for what the lawsuit alleges is “Negligence.” Griffin is seeking damages in the amount of “in excess of $25,000.”

• The third claim for relief is for what the lawsuit alleges is “Negligent Infliction of Severe Emotional Distress.” Griffin is seeking damages in the amount of “in excess of $25,000.”

• The fourth claim for relief is for what the lawsuit alleges is “Intentional Infliction of Severe Emotional Distress.” Griffin is seeking damages in the amount of “in excess of $25,000.”

• The fifth claim for relief is asks for a “Permanent Injunction.” Griffin has asked for a jury trial, damages in the amount of “in excess of $25,000,” and a restraining order that could prevent the Wayne Country Day baseball team from “causing trespass to (the Griffin’s) property from baseball hits from (WCDS) onto (the Griffin’s) property.”

Wayne Country Day has not yet filed a response to Griffin’s complaint, but Sept. 19, through its attorney, the school asked the court to give it until Nov. 6 to do so.