Edgar v. Superior Court
Decision Date | 30 August 1978 |
Citation | 148 Cal.Rptr. 687,84 Cal.App.3d 430 |
Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Parties | Donald Eugene EDGAR, Jr., Debra Jean Edgar and Timothy Edgar, by and through Donald Eugene Edgar, Jr., guardian ad litem, Petitioners, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California, FOR the COUNTY OF CALAVERAS, Respondent. STATE of California, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Real Party in Interest. Civ. 17773. |
Van Dyke, Shaw & Schuckman and William A. Schuckman, Stockton, for petitioners.
Harry S. Fenton, Chief Counsel, Robert F. Carlson, Asst. Chief Counsel, George L. Cory, and Richard A. Wehe, Sacramento, for real party in interest.
Donald Eugene Edgar, Jr., and his minor children seek a writ of mandate to compel the Calaveras County Superior Court to require the State of California, Department of Transportation (State), to answer interrogatories.
The sole issue presented is the scope of the privilege of confidentiality granted by Vehicle Code section 20012. 1
In 1976, Donald Edgar and his children filed an action seeking damages for the wrongful death of Leslie, his wife and mother of the children. Liability of the State was asserted on the basis of negligence in the design, construction, and maintenance of a turn-out lane on Highway 49 in Calaveras County, at the site of the accident. (Gov.Code, §§ 835, 815.6.) 2
As part of pretrial discovery, petitioners served interrogatories on the State seeking information about prior accidents occurring at the site of the Edgar fatality. Essentially the interrogatories sought all the information contained in the filed reports of prior accidents. The specific information sought included the dates and times of each prior accident; the number of persons involved; the number, if any, killed; the exact location of the accidents, the names and addresses of all witnesses; the lanes of travel of each vehicle involved; the identity of the investigating officers; the cause of the accidents given by the officer; the weather conditions at the time, and whether or not it was considered a causative factor; the light conditions; whether the facts of the accidents were similar to those in which Leslie Edgar was killed; and whether the accidents were caused by a violation of statute, and if so, the statute involved and the name of the person cited.
The State refused to answer the interrogatories stating, Petitioners' subsequent motion to compel answers was denied.
In a prior opinion, this court held that reports of accidents required by Vehicle Code section 20008 are privileged, confidential, and not discoverable except by those authorized access to them by Vehicle Code section 20012. (People ex rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Superior Court (1976) 60 Cal.App.3d 352, 131 Cal.Rptr. 476.) There we vacated an order directing production of accident reports for examination by a noninvolved party. In doing so we stated:
In obiter dictum, we also indicated that "inquiry into other...
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...ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Superior Court (Thomsen) (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 25, 162 Cal.Rptr. 78; Edgar v. Superior Court (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 430, 148 Cal.Rptr. 687; and People ex rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Superior Court (Clark) (1976) 60 Cal.App.3d 352, 131 Cal.Rptr. 476,......
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...in that case, to segregate the exempt from the nonexempt material was held to be reversible error. (See also, Edgar v. Superior Court (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 430, 148 Cal.Rptr. 687.) Similarly, in the instant case, plaintiff's general entitlement to the document as parent of one of the minors ......
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State of California ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Superior Court
...the purpose of the statute to protect the state from its duty to acknowledge the fact of prior accidents. (Edgar v. Superior Court (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 430, 435, 148 Cal.Rptr. 687.) Petitioner relies upon two cases, both involving suits against the state based on alleged defects in a road. ......
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