Facts

On June 8, 2018, as plaintiff Alicia Arredondo was walking along the sidewalk of the north side of the 1200 block of El Camino Real in South San Francisco, she tripped and fell over an unsecured metal cover for an underground utility vault. The steel grate covered an opening to access underground telephone equipment owned by defendant Pacific Bell Telephone Company. Plaintiff sued both defendants the City of South San Francisco and PacBell for her injuries resulting from the fall.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that the City owned, operated, and controlled the metal vault and steel grate covering within the public sidewalk. Plaintiff alleged that the City was liable for her injuries resulting from the trip and fall because it was caused by a dangerous condition of public property. Moreover, plaintiff alleged that the City was negligent for failing to properly supervise and maintained the metal vault in the public sidewalk.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant the City denied plaintiff's contentions. Defendant contended it should not be liable for the metal vault because the City did not own, control or maintain the alleged dangerous condition. In support of its motion for summary judgment, the City provided defendant PacBell's discovery responses where PacBell admitted that it owned, maintained and controlled the metal vault. Lastly, the City contended that because it did own, control or maintain the metal vault, it had no duty to repair a privately owned property and as such had no power to remedy against a dangerous condition on property owned by PacBell.

Result

The court granted defendant the City's motion for summary judgment.