Staats v. Vintner's Golf Club, LLC

• Citation: 236 Cal.Rptr.3d 236,25 Cal.App.5th 826
• Decision Date: 01 August 2018
• Docket Number: A147928
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: Carolyn STAATS, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. VINTNER'S GOLF CLUB, LLC, Defendant and Respondent.

25 Cal.App.5th 826
236 Cal.Rptr.3d 236

Carolyn STAATS, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
VINTNER'S GOLF CLUB, LLC, Defendant and Respondent.

A147928

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

Filed August 1, 2018

Counsel for Plaintiff and Appellant: Bruce L. Ahnfeldt, Frederick H. Brennan, Law Office of Bruce L. Ahnfeldt.

Counsel for Defendant and Respondent: Gregory P. Arakawa, Steven R. Disharoon, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLP, Concord.

Humes, P.J.

25 Cal.App.5th 830

Plaintiff Carolyn Staats nearly died after being attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets while playing golf on a Yountville

236 Cal.Rptr.3d 239

course operated by Vintner's Golf Club, LLC (Club). She sued the Club for general negligence and premises liability, but the trial court granted summary judgment against her on the basis that the Club owed no duty to protect its patrons from yellow jackets that came from an undiscovered nest on the course.

We reverse. We hold that the duty of golf course operators to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition includes a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect patrons from nests of yellow jackets on the premises. The measures a golf course operator must take to satisfy this duty may vary, and we do not address whether the Club breached its duty, or whether any such breach caused Staats's injuries. Here, those questions involve unresolved issues of material fact that must be determined by the trier of fact in the first instance.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In early July 2013, Staats was taking a golf lesson from Jeffrey Dennis, an instructor at the Club. As she prepared to take a shot on the fairway of the fifth hole, she was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets.¹ She screamed, and Dennis tried to swat away the insects. The two then ran about 150 yards until the swarm stopped pursuing them.

Staats got into a car to be taken to the hospital and started losing consciousness. Dennis remembered there was a fire station close by, and he ran ahead to summon the paramedics outside while someone else drove

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Staats to the station. She was given a shot and quickly transported to a Napa hospital. A paramedic said Staats had been "within fifteen seconds" of dying.

Staats had been stung over 50 times, and she experienced "redness, welts, and swelling" all over her body. She spent the night in the intensive-care unit and missed over five weeks of work. The attack left her highly allergic to yellow jacket stings, and she now must be given three injections per month and carry multiple epinephrine pens.

At the time of the incident, the Club had no written policy on inspecting its grounds for dangerous conditions or pests. It did, however, have a pest-control company, Clark Pest Control (Clark), perform monthly inspections around the Club's restaurant and offices, primarily to discover and eradicate "roaches, insects, [and] ants." Both the Club's golf director and its grounds superintendent had seen stray yellow jackets or bees on the golf course before, but it is undisputed that before Staats was attacked the Club had no actual knowledge of any swarm, hive, or nest ever being on the grounds or of any patron ever being stung there. The Club never set traps or took other measures to control yellow jackets because it did not perceive them to be a problem.

The day after the attack, the Club's business manager inspected the area of the fifth hole but did not see "any bees or yellow jackets" or locate "anything that looked like any type of hive or nest." The following day, at the manager's request, a Clark employee also conducted an inspection after Dennis pointed out where the swarm attacked Staats. The Clark employee "walked around the area looking for a nest," and "[a]fter looking for approximately fifteen minutes, [he] saw an underground hole about one and a half inches

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around. It was near the edge of a sand trap and had a partial lip of grass over the hole. There were about four to [five] yellow jacket/wasp[-]looking bees on the ground and about a dozen flying around." The Clark employee sprayed the underground nest and left. Yellow jacket traps were also placed near the fifth hole.

Staats filed this lawsuit in September 2014, asserting causes of action for general negligence and premises liability. The Club moved for summary judgment, claiming that it owed no duty to protect patrons from "an attack by a wild swarm of insects without ... prior knowledge of [the swarm's] residence, congregation[,] or injury[-]producing behavior." The trial court granted the motion, finding that the Club "had no duty to protect against the risk in this case" because of the Club's "lack of knowledge" of "swarming yellow jackets or subterranean yellow jacket nests on the golf course fairway." The court entered final judgment for the Club in October 2015.

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II.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review.

A motion for summary judgment is properly granted if "there is no triable issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." ( Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c).) A defendant moving for summary judgment must present evidence that either "conclusively negate[s] an element of the plaintiff's cause of action" or "show[s] that the plaintiff does not possess, and cannot reasonably obtain," evidence necessary to establish an element of the claim. ( Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 826, 853-854, 107 Cal.Rptr.2d 841, 24 P.3d 493.) If the defendant meets this burden, "the burden shifts to the plaintiff ... to show that a triable issue of one or more material facts exists as to the cause of action or a defense thereto." ( Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (p)(2).)

We review the record de novo, "liberally construing the evidence in support of the party opposing summary judgment and resolving doubts concerning the evidence in favor of that party." ( Miller v. Department of Corrections (2005) 36 Cal.4th 446, 460, 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 797, 115 P.3d 77.) "We affirm the trial court's decision if it is correct on any ground the parties had an adequate opportunity to address in the trial court, regardless of the reasons the trial court gave." ( Jameson v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 901, 909, 225 Cal.Rptr.3d 171.)

B. The Relevant Issue Is Whether the Club's Duty to Keep Its Premises Reasonably Safe Includes Protecting Patrons from Yellow Jacket Nests.

"The elements of a negligence claim and a premises liability claim are the same: a legal duty of care, breach of that duty, and proximate cause resulting in injury." ( Kesner v. Superior Court (2016) 1 Cal.5th 1132, 1158, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 283, 384 P.3d 283 ( Kesner ).) Unlike the elements of breach, causation, and injury, all of which are fact-specific issues for the trier of fact, the existence and scope of a duty are questions of law. ( Id. at pp. 1142, 1144, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 283, 384 P.3d 283 ; Alcaraz v. Vece (1997) 14 Cal.4th 1149, 1162, fn. 4, 60 Cal.Rptr.2d 448, 929 P.2d 1239.)

Under Civil Code section 1714, "[e]veryone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or

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person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of

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ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." ( Civ. Code, § 1714, subd. (a).) The statute " 'establishes the general duty of each person to exercise, in his or her activities, reasonable care for the safety of others.' " ( Kesner, supra , 1 Cal.5th at p. 1142, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 283, 384 P.3d 283.) Where, as here, there is no " 'statutory provision establishing an exception to the general rule of Civil Code section 1714, courts should create one only where "clearly supported by public policy." ' " ( Id. at p. 1143, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 283, 384 P.3d 283.)

As a consequence of this general duty, those who own or occupy property² have a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. ( Ortega v. Kmart Corp. (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1200, 1205, 114 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 36 P.3d 11 [store proprietor]; Alcaraz v. Vece, supra , 14 Cal.4th at p. 1156, 60 Cal.Rptr.2d 448, 929 P.2d 1239 [possessor of land]; see also Morgan v. Fuji Country USA, Inc. (1995) 34 Cal.App.4th 127, 134, 40 Cal.Rptr.2d 249 [duty of golf course operator "to provide a reasonably safe golf course"].) To comply with this duty, a person who controls property must " ' " 'inspect [the premises] or take other proper means to ascertain their condition' " ' " and, if a dangerous condition exists that would have been discovered by the exercise of reasonable care, has a duty to give adequate warning of or remedy it. ( Salinas v. Martin (2008) 166 Cal.App.4th 404, 412, 82 Cal.Rptr.3d...