Department of Motor Vehicles v. Superior Court

Opinion

EVANS, J.

This proceeding originates in an amended complaint seeking damages for wrongful death, which is pending in respondent court.

Shirley May Hankins was killed in an automobile collision with a vehicle driven by Dinzel Kirk McGehee. Plaintiffs (real parties in interest here) are the surviving husband and children of the decedent. They sought damages from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the State of California (hereafter Department) on the theory that the Department had a duty to revoke McGehee’s license pursuant to Vehicle Code

[539]

sections 12809, 12810, and 13359, and the failure to take such action resulted in the injury for which damages are sought.

The Department demurred to the complaint on the ground that Government Code section 818.4 provides the Department absolute immunity from liability under the circumstances. The trial court overruled the demurrer, and this petition, seeking a writ of mandate requiring respondent court to vacate its order overruling the demurrer and to sustain it without leave to amend, ensued. The sole question presented by the writ proceeding

1

is whether or not Government Code section 818.4 insulates the Department from liability.

Real parties alleged that McGehee had accumulated six traffic citations within eighteen months prior to the accident, and that as a consequence, the Department was under an obligation to revoke his driver’s license. In essence, real parties attempt to assert that it was the mandatory duty of the Department to take action; that failure to do so imposes liability by virtue of Government Code section 815.6.

The relationship of Government Code sections 818.4 and 815.6

2

has been clarified by the Supreme Court in

Morris

v.

County of Marin