Cardenas v. Eggleston Youth Center

Opinion

WOODS, P. J.

Plaintiff Frank Cardenas, Jr., (plaintiff) appeals from a judgment of dismissal entered in favor of defendant Eggleston Youth Cen

[333]

ter (defendant) after defendant’s general demurrer to plaintiff’s first amended complaint was sustained without leave to amend.

1

We affirm.

For the purposes of this appeal we assume the truth of the factual allegations of the complaint.

(Beauchene

v.

Synanon Foundation, Inc.

(1979) 88 Cal.App.3d 342, 344 [151 Cal.Rptr. 796].) To assist our determi nation of whether there was a reasonable possibility that amendment could have cured the defects in the complaint, we also include additional factual material presented to the court below with which plaintiff could have amended his complaint had amendment been allowed. (See

Tarasoff

v.

Regents of University of California

(1976) 17 Cal.3d 425, 432, fn. 3 [131 Cal.Rptr. 14, 551 P.2d 334, 83 A.L.R.3d 1166].)

On May 29, 1984, plaintiff was brutally attacked by Ronald C. Burnette (Burnette), a minor, who, at the time of the attack, was a resident at defendant facility, a group home provider licensed by the State Department of Social Services. Burnette had been placed in defendant facility by order of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Juvenile Division, as a condition of probation. Defendant is an open facility, the residents of which are free to come and go subject to certain restrictions. The attack upon plaintiff by Burnette occurred at a convenience store to which Burnette had gone after obtaining a pass. As a result of the attack, plaintiff sustained serious personal injury.

On April 1, 1985, plaintiff filed a complaint alleging five causes of action against various combinations of defendants, including defendant facility. Defendant’s demurrer to this complaint was sustained with leave to amend. Subsequently, plaintiff filed a first amended complaint alleging only two causes of action, battery and negligence. Only the negligence cause of action was alleged against defendant.