Medina v. City of Fontana, E037446 (Cal. App. 6/12/2007)
| Decision Date | 12 June 2007 |
| Docket Number | E037446 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | CRUZ MEDINA et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF FONTANA, Defendant, Cross-complainant, and Appellant, YADER HERNALDO CASTRO et al., Cross-defendants and Respondents |
Appeal from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, No. SCVSS094904, Tara Reilly, Judge. Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Pine & Pine, Norman Pine, Beverly Tillett Pine; The Homampour Law Firm, Arash Homampour and Reza Mirroknian for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Horvitz & Levy, Peter Abrahams, Julie L. Woods; Lynberg & Watkins and Dana Alden Fox for Defendant, Cross-complainant, and Appellant.
No appearance for Cross-defendants and Respondents.
Yader Castro Rivas (Castro), an unlicensed 15-year-old driver, was on Cypress Avenue in Fontana when he decided to pass the car ahead of him. Even though Cypress was a key route to and from A.B. Miller High School, the particular portion he was on had no sidewalks. As he swerved to the left, he realized that he was about to hit a student walking on the pavement. He therefore accelerated to about 60 miles an hour and swerved to the right. He went into a skid, shut his eyes, locked his brakes, and hit two other students walking on the right side of the street. One of them — Karen Medina — was killed.
Karen Medina's parents, Cruz Medina and Agueda Miranda (plaintiffs), filed this wrongful death action against the City of Fontana (the City). They dismissed other named defendants — including Castro and his parents, Walter Grande and Claudia Rivas — before trial. The City, however, cross-complained against Castro and his parents.
A jury, by special verdict, found the City liable on a theory of a dangerous condition of public property. (Gov. Code, § 835.) It further found both Castro and his parents liable on a theory of negligence. It fixed the amount of plaintiffs' damages at $37.5 million. It apportioned 75 percent of the liability for these damages to the City, 25 percent to Castro's parents, and zero percent to Castro.
The trial court denied the City's motion for new trial with respect to liability but granted it with respect to the amount and the apportionment of damages.
Plaintiffs appeal, contending:
1. The trial court erred by granting the City's motion for new trial with respect to the apportionment of damages.
2. The trial court erred by granting the City's motion for new trial with respect to the amount of damages.
The City cross-appeals, contending:
1. The City, as a matter of law, cannot be held liable for the failure to make capital improvements such as sidewalks.
2. Plaintiffs failed to prove that the lack of sidewalks created a substantial risk of injury when the street was used with due care.
3. The trial court erred by allowing plaintiffs' expert to testify that a dangerous condition existed.
4. The jury's apportionment of damages is unsupported by the evidence.
5. The jury's award of damages is excessive as a matter of law.
We find no error with respect to the finding that the City is liable. We also find no error with respect to the order granting a new trial on the apportionment of damages. We do agree with plaintiffs that the trial court erred in granting a new trial on the amount of damages, because it failed to file a timely statement of reasons. Nevertheless, we agree with the City that the amount of damages is excessive as a matter of law.
As of December 2001, Castro was 15 years old and a student at A.B. Miller High School. He lived with his mother, Claudia Rivas, and his (step)father, Walter Grande.
In September 2001, with his parents' permission, Castro had begun driving their car to and from school. His father went to work too early to drive him, and his mother did not know how to drive. He did not have a driver's license or permit. He had learned to drive in his native Nicaragua, where he had driven perhaps 20 times. He had taken the classroom portion of a driver's education class but not the behind-the-wheel portion.
After a couple of months, Castro was called into the school office. His car keys were taken away from him, and he was told that he was not authorized to drive in California. He had to call an adult cousin to come and get the car. Although he told his parents about this incident, they continued to let him drive their car to school; he simply parked at the home of a friend who lived a couple of blocks away from school.
On December 3, 2001, when Castro got out of school, he was in a hurry to get home. His route took him south on Cypress Avenue. Cypress was a two-lane street in a residential neighborhood. The speed limit was 35 miles per hour. Castro had driven on Cypress before; he knew that there were no sidewalks and that students sometimes walked in the street.
At the intersection of Cypress and Baseline Road, Castro found himself behind a green Ford Taurus. They both continued south on Cypress, going 25 to 35 miles an hour. When the Taurus seemed to be stopping, however, Castro decided to pass it. He swung left and accelerated. The Taurus was "playing around" and did not seem to want to let him pass, which made him mad.
At that point, there were three students walking down the left (east) side of Cypress; at least one of them was walking in the street. Castro claimed that he looked to make sure there were no cars coming but did not see the students; he did not realize they were there until he had already pulled up alongside the Taurus. To avoid hitting them, he "floored it" and swerved back to the right. He was going about 60 miles an hour.
Castro went into a skid. He hit the brakes as hard as he could, with both feet. Because he "felt that something bad was going to happen," he closed his eyes and put his head down. His car hit a tree on the right (west) side of Cypress. Then, as it spun away from the tree, it hit two students who had been walking down the right side of the street, Karen Medina and Victor Isanoa. Isanoa survived; Medina was killed.
Isanoa and a second eyewitness testified that Medina was in the dirt shoulder, not in the street.
Castro pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter. He served four months in juvenile hall and almost eight months in boot camp, then completed probation.
In 1979, the City annexed an unincorporated area including the subject portion of Cypress. Portions of Cypress immediately north and south of Baseline Road did not have sidewalks. Instead, there were unpaved dirt and gravel shoulders.
In 1991, A.B. Miller High School opened. Cypress was one of the main north-south routes for both pedestrians and vehicles going to and from the high school. In 2000, on an average weekday, 3,400 cars traveled on Cypress. Due to the lack of sidewalks, students often walked in the paved roadway.
There are approximately 1,000 miles of streets in Fontana; 20 to 30 percent do not have sidewalks. It was the City's practice not to install sidewalks itself; under the municipal code, it was a condition of any new development that the developer install sidewalks.
The City owned and controlled the dirt shoulders of Cypress. Installing sidewalks on both sides of Cypress would have cost not more than $20,000. The City had enough money to install sidewalks on Cypress, although as a result it probably would have had to "cut something else." Alternatively, it could have raised the money through a bond issue or an assessment district.
In 1996 or 1997, Emory James, a well-known local pastor and the father of an A.B. Miller High School student, spoke at a city council meeting. He was concerned that students walking on Cypress might get hurt due to the absence of sidewalks. At the time, the council was considering making capital improvements to streets in northern Fontana. James argued that it would be cost effective to install sidewalks in the high school area at the same time. Later, James also spoke to the city traffic engineer about the need for sidewalks.
In 1997, Toi Bolton, a local community activist, appeared at a city council meeting and complained that the lack of sidewalks in the area around the high school was "hazardous" for the students.
In 1999, Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Mancha commented at a city council meeting: He asked city staff to look into installing a temporary asphalt sidewalk on one side of the street. He testified, however, that city staff would have known that he was referring to Walnut Avenue, not Cypress.
In 2000, the City applied for a grant under the state's "Safe Routes to School Program" that would have included the installation of sidewalks on the east side of Cypress, on the south of Baseline, and also on Oleander Avenue. In its application, the City stated: "Students attending A.B. Miller High School . . . must deal with . . . potentially hazardous conditions due to the lack of all-weather sidewalks outside the travel lane of the adjacent arterials on two of the primary pedestrian routes to school." It also stated: "The state of disrepair of the shoulder areas[] and vehicle parking blocking pedestrian traffic cause potential safety problems for students, as they are forced to share the travel lanes on the adjacent roadway with motorist[s]." Part of the grant was funded but not the part for sidewalks on Cypress.
According to Harry Krueper, plaintiffs' traffic engineering and accident reconstruction expert, if there had been sidewalks on Cypress, the accident would never have happened. He explained that the students on the east side of the street would have been safely out of Castro's way; he would not have had to swerve to avoid them.
Krueper testified that the City should have installed sidewalks on Cypress when the high school opened,...
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