In August 2025, Audrey Airut Murphy and Stuart Cassel of Keating, Bucklin & McCormack received a unanimous defense verdict on behalf of the City of Tukwila after a three-week trial in King County Superior Court. The trial involved a plaintiff who sustained permanent eye injury caused by ricochet of his golf ball using a practice net structure at the City of Tukwila’s municipal golf course and his wife who claimed loss of consortium damages. Plaintiffs claimed the City was negligent in maintaining the golf course structure in a reasonably safe condition. On behalf of the City, Audrey and Stu asserted multiple affirmative defenses at trial, including recreational use immunity, assumption of risk, and contributory negligence.
 
Under the recreational use immunity statute RCW 4.24.210, the State of Washington encourages landowners like the City of Tukwila to make available public spaces for recreational use free of charge by providing immunity from liability for unintentional injuries that occur during recreational activities like golf. The statute applies when the property owner does not charge a fee for use of the area where the injury occurred unless the injury causing condition is known, dangerous, artificial, and latent. After the trial, the jury explained that Audrey’s closing argument, which tracked the jury instructions regarding the application of the statute, helped them consider each element of the immunity doctrine, and the jury was particularly persuaded by lay and expert witness testimony Audrey and Stu elicited during the trial.
 
The jury reached a unanimous defense verdict, finding that recreational use immunity applied under RCW 4.24.210, and no exceptions defeated immunity. An alternate juror reached out to Audrey the day after the verdict, complimenting the trial team and stating that she agreed with the verdict.