Bonanno v. CCCTA

• Decision Date: 07 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. S099339.,S099339.
• Citation: 65 P.3d 807,132 Cal.Rptr.2d 341,30 Cal.4th 139
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: Darlene BONANNO, an Incompetent Person, etc., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. CENTRAL CONTRA COSTA TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Defendant and Appellant; Diana BONTA', as Director, etc., Claimant and Respondent. Darlene Bonanno, an Incompetent Person, etc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority, Defendant and Respondent; Diana Bonta', as Director, etc., Claimant and Respondent.

132 Cal.Rptr.2d 341

30 Cal.4th 139

65 P.3d 807

Darlene BONANNO, an Incompetent Person, etc., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. CENTRAL CONTRA COSTA TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Defendant and Appellant;

Diana BONTA', as Director, etc., Claimant and Respondent.

Darlene Bonanno, an Incompetent Person, etc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority, Defendant and Respondent;

Diana Bonta', as Director, etc., Claimant and Respondent.

No. S099339.

Supreme Court of California.

April 7, 2003.

As Modified April 7, 2003.

Law Offices of Walker & Hamilton, Walter H. Walker III, San Francisco, Timothy M. Hamilton, Mill Valley, and Dane J. Durham, for Plaintiff and Appellant and for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Low, Ball & Lynch, David B. Lynch, Dale L. Allen, Jr., San Francisco, Jennifer C. Rasmussen, Los Angeles, Christopher E. Arras, San Francisco, and Charles D. Redfield, for Defendant and Appellant and for Defendant and Respondent.

Rankin, Landsness, Lahde, Serverian & Stock, Michael C. Serverian, San Jose, and Alan S. Liang, for California Transit Insurance Pool as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant and Defendant and Respondent.

Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos & Rudy, David W. Baer and Kurt A. Franklin, San Francisco, for San Mateo County Transit District and 200 other public entities as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant and Defendant and Respondent.

Fred J. Hiestand, Sacramento, for The Civil Justice Association of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant and Defendant and Respondent.

Law Offices of Ellen Lake and Ellen Lake, Oakland, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Mark P. Robinson, Jr., Newport Beach; Roland Wrinkle, Woodland Hills; Harvey R. Levine, San Diego; Robert Steinberg; Thomas G. Stolpman, Long Beach; William D. Turley, San Diego; Mary E. Alexander, San Francisco; Joseph Harbison III, Sacramento; Bruce Broilett; Douglas Devries, Sacramento; Leonard Sacks, Granada Hills; Tony Tanke, Redwood City; Lea-Ann Tratten; Steven J. Kleifield, Los Angeles; David Rosen; Moses

Lebovits, Los Angeles; Christine Spagnoli; James Sturdevant, San Francisco; Daniel Smith; Deborah David, Los Angeles; Lawrence Drivon; Thor Emblem, Escondido; Rick Simons; David Casey, Jr., San Diego; Law Offices of Ian Herzog, Evan D. Marshall and Ian Herzog, Santa Monica, for Consumer Attorneys of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Stephanie Wald and Angela Botelho, Deputy Attorneys General, for Claimant and Respondent.

WERDEGAR, J.

The question presented is whether the location of a bus stop may constitute a "dangerous condition" of public property, within the meaning of Government Code sections 830 and 835,¹ where, in order to reach the stop, bus patrons must cross a busy thoroughfare at an uncontrolled intersection. Assuming all other elements of an action under section 835 are proven, we conclude it may; no rule of law precludes imposition of liability on this basis. We therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed a judgment on jury verdict for plaintiff Darlene Bonanno, who was injured while attempting to cross an arterial street to reach a bus stop maintained by defendant Central Contra Costa Transit Authority (CCCTA).

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The facts are drawn in large part from the opinion of the Court of Appeal.

CCCTA began providing bus services to Contra Costa County (County) residents in 1982, taking over routes from the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District. At that time, a bus stop (consisting simply of a route sign placed in compacted gravel) was located on the north side of Pacheco Boulevard (Pacheco) near the intersection of Pacheco and DeNormandie Way (DeNormandie), in an unincorporated area of the County near the City of Martinez. In the early 1980's, residents in the neighborhood of that intersection made it known to County officials that they were having difficulty crossing Pacheco to get to and from the bus stop; in response, the County painted a crosswalk at the intersection. Other than bus patrons, few pedestrians used the crosswalk.

Despite the crosswalk, pedestrians still had difficulty finding adequate gaps in traffic during the morning commute. Morning commute traffic on Pacheco was heavy, drivers were relatively inattentive, and the speed limit was often disregarded. In February 1986, Kimberly Chittock was struck by a car while crossing Pacheco midblock to get to the DeNormandie bus stop. The Chittock family filed a claim against CCCTA complaining about the location of the DeNormandie bus stop; CCCTA denied the claim. In the ensuing lawsuit, CCCTA took a deposition in which the Chittocks' traffic expert testified it was unsafe for pedestrians to cross Pacheco at DeNormandie, and the bus stop should have been moved one block west to the intersection at Morello Avenue (Morello), which (although it had a stop sign) should have been controlled with traffic signals.

One year after Chittock's accident, early in 1987, 15 students complained to CCCTA that it was too dangerous to cross Pacheco at Morello to get to the DeNormandie bus stop. In July 1987, the County installed traffic signal lights, equipped with pedestrian push buttons, at the Pacheco and Morello intersection. CCCTA did not, however, move its bus stop from DeNormandie to Morello.

Although pedestrians could now cross Pacheco safely at Morello, the route to the DeNormandie bus stop along the north shoulder of Pacheco was unnecessarily hazardous. The shoulder was relatively narrow, and the gravel and dirt adjacent to the paved portion could be muddy. Additionally, the area was often occupied by large parked trucks, and in one portion the drainage swale had eroded to within five and a half feet of the edge line. In another area of the north shoulder, pedestrians had to walk in the roadway for several feet. Plaintiffs traffic engineering expert opined that pedestrians trying to get to the DeNormandie bus stop during the morning commute faced unnecessary hazards wherever they crossed, because of the unsafe conditions on the north shoulder of Pacheco and the difficulty of finding safe gaps in traffic to cross Pacheco without a signal. As a matter of bus patron safety, the DeNormandie bus stop should have been moved one block west to Morello.

Plaintiff Bonanno lives with members of her family on Robinsdale Road, south of Pacheco. At the time of the accident, she relied on public transportation, including a CCCTA bus she took to her job cleaning rooms at the Motel 6 in Walnut Creek. On November 16, 1993, around 7:00 a.m., walking to the bus stop at DeNormandie, Bonanno attempted to cross Pacheco at the DeNormandie intersection. She waited on the curb for some minutes for a break in traffic, but a car passed every few seconds. Finally, eastbound motorist Jennifer Kimberly stopped at the crosswalk to let Bonanno cross. After further waiting, a westbound motorist stopped as well.

Jeremy McLain was driving eastbound on Pacheco on his way to work. He was having difficulty seeing out of his frost-covered windshield with the bright morning sun ahead. As Bonanno stepped out into the crosswalk and walked in front of Kimberly's car, McLain rear-ended Kimberly's car (which he had not seen), causing it to lurch forward and hit Bonanno, who was seriously injured.

Because the County owns the right-of-way along Pacheco, CCCTA had to obtain the County's permission to move a bus stop or install a new stop. Before plaintiffs accident, CCCTA had never requested addition of a stop at Morello. After the accident, CCCTA's representative met with the County's traffic engineer and requested a stop be added at Morello. The engineer and the County Board of Supervisors approved the request, and the stop was added.

Bonanno sued CCCTA, the County, McLain, and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and related entities, where she had been treated after the accident. Eventually, all defendants except CCCTA settled, and in 1999 Bonanno tried her case against CCCTA alone. The jury returned its verdict in her favor, expressly finding that the bus stop was a dangerous condition of public property. The jury found McLain 88 percent responsible, Kaiser Hospital 10 percent responsible, and the County and CCCTA each 1 percent responsible. The trial court entered judgment for Bonanno and against CCCTA, on Bonanno's cause of action for a dangerous condition of public property, in the amounts of $1,591,130 in economic damages (reflecting credits for prior settlements) and $15,000 in noneconomic damages (1 percent of the total noneconomic damage award).

The Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that the location of the DeNormandie stop created a dangerous condition in that it "beckoned pedestrian bus patrons to cross, and compelled cars to stop, at the feeder crosswalk without attendant traffic lights or pedestrian-activated signals." We granted review on CCCTA's petition, limiting review to the question "whether the location of a bus stop may constitute a dangerous condition of public property under Government Code section 830 because bus patrons will be enticed to cross a dangerous crosswalk to reach the bus stop."

ANALYSIS

Under section 835, a public entity such as CCCTA is "liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if the plaintiff establishes that the property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury, that the injury was proximately caused by the dangerous condition, that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury which was incurred, and [that]: [¶] ... [¶] (b) [t]he public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition under Section 835.2 a sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition." At this stage of the proceedings, the only element at issue is the existence of a dangerous...