Dobbs v. City of Los Angeles

California Court of Appeal Oct 16, 2019 No. B290509Published

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Holding. The court held that the City of Los Angeles is entitled to design immunity under Government Code section 830.6 regarding the placement of concrete bollards, as the City established the required elements of discretionary approval and reasonableness.

Issues

Whether the City of Los Angeles established the three elements required for design immunity under Government Code section 830.6.
Whether the trial court properly admitted evidence regarding the City's discretionary approval process.

Disposition. Affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The City successfully invoked a statutory defense called design immunity. Design immunity shields public entities from personal injury claims when a public employee reasonably exercised discretionary authority when approving the design at issue.”

“The statute grants immunity as long as reasonable minds can differ concerning whether a design should have been approved. The design need not be perfect but merely reasonable under the circumstances.”

“Tort law incorporates common sense. When one walks into a concrete pillar that is big and obvious, the fault is one’s own.”

Filed 10/16/19 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

CYNTHIA DOBBS et al., B290509

Plaintiffs and Appellants, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC626459) v.

CITY OF LOS ANGELES,

Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Marc R. Marmaro, Judge. Affirmed. Raymond Ghermezian for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester, Sevan Gobel and Ladell Hulet Muhlestein for Defendant and Respondent. ____________________

The rule deciding this case is look where you are going. In broad daylight, Cynthia Dobbs walked into a round concrete pillar. It was 17.5 inches wide and 17.5 inches tall. A field of these unpainted pillars, also called bollards, protects the Los Angeles Convention Center from car bombs. They are the height of your average coffee table. Dobbs walked into one of them and sued the City of Los Angeles because it allegedly created a dangerous condition that caused her to trip and fall. The trial court granted summary judgment against her. We affirm. About two million people visit the convention center yearly. More than 50 bollards are in front of its south hall. For the nine years before Dobbs’s accident, no one filed an injury claim. The City successfully invoked a statutory defense called design immunity. Design immunity shields public entities from personal injury claims when a public employee reasonably exercised discretionary authority when approving the design at issue. (Gov. Code, § 830.6.) Design immunity has three required elements. (Hampton v. County of San Diego (2015) 62 Cal.4th 340, 342 (Hampton).) The City successfully established all three. We pass by the first element, which the City satisfied, according to Dobbs’s stipulation at oral argument. The second element requires discretionary approval of the design before construction. (Hampton, supra, 62 Cal.4th at p. 342.) City Engineer Robert Horii approved the plans, which bore his office’s official stamp. Dobbs faults a declaration about the design approval process but it was adequate. Discretionary approval need not be established with testimony of the people who approved the project. Testimony about the entity’s discretionary approval

Dobbs v. City of Los Angeles

AI Brief

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

CITY OF LOS ANGELES,

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