Facts

Jan Chandler, Brittany Chandler, Tyler Chandler and Courtney Chandler sued the California Dept. of Transportation in connection with the death of Christopher Chandler.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
Chandler, age 62, was crossing El Camino Real at the intersection with Isabella Ave. in Atheron when he was struck by a vehicle and killed. The police blamed Chandler for riding his bicycle into oncoming traffic without first ensuring it was safe to enter the intersection in violation of the California vehicle code and investigated the accident as a possible suicide.

Chandler was in the marked crosswalk when he was struck and killed. Contrary to the police report, Chandler was walking his bike, not riding it. The crosswalk was unsafe because a pedestrian's view of oncoming traffic could be obscured by vehicles yielding to the pedestrian. Further, the crosswalk was difficult for approaching drivers to see. Plaintiffs claimed the crosswalk was a trap for pedestrians such as Chandler.

The state knew that it was unsafe to mark crosswalks at busy, uncontrolled intersections such as the one where Chandler was killed, yet it did so anyway. The state had notice of the dangers associated with this intersection in particular but refused to fix the crosswalk because its policy was to leave dangerous crosswalks in place until it learned of at least four deaths or injuries at the intersection.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Caltrans maintained the subject crosswalk had been operating safely at least 10 years prior to the subject accident, given no prior similar accidents in the crosswalk and no complaints received from the general public and local government entities. Caltrans also maintained that the accident was caused by human error of the decedent bicyclist and/or driver.

Settlement Discussions

Caltrans made a CCP 998 offer of $100,000.

Result

The matter proceeded against California only. The case against Caltrans was tried in December 2015 and ended in a hung jury. On retrial, the unanimous jury awarded plaintiffs $9.5 million in non-economic damages, consisting of $3.5 million to Jan, decedent's wife and $2 million each to his surviving adult daughters. The jury assigned 90 percent fault to Caltrans, for a net verdict of $8,550,000. The jury found that the non-party driver was 10 percent to blame, and found no fault on the part of plaintiffs' decedent.

Other Information

FILING DATE: Dec. 1, 2010.