A jury awarded 79-year-old Amar Sappal $6.2 million after determining the Mid-Pacific Country Club was responsible for a fall that left him paralyzed.

The amount of the award is staggering, especially when considering the circumstances and the fact that the jury initially awarded Sappal $12.5 million.

According to a press release from Sappal’s attorneys, he was golfing with his son at the country club when he took his tumble.

It was 11 p.m. and Sappal was watching his son thwack an “aloha ball” from the first tee. The automatic sprinklers came on, sending the elder Sappal over a 15-20 foot cliff.

The fall left him paraplegic.

Although the country club argued that Sappal was to blame because had been drinking before the accident, the jury found otherwise.

The jury initially awarded Sappal $12.5 million in damages. It reduced the amount after finding that Sappal was also at fault.

Sappal was Honolulu’s deputy director of the Department of Transportation when Frank Fasi was mayor.

The press release said he retired after 30 years of public service, and is considered the “modern father of rail in Honolulu.”

—Nick Grube