Facts

On July 6, 2016, Carole Adams, a resident of the Cabernet Vineyards Homeowners Association community, was walking on a walkway on the Homeowners Association's property with her friend Nick Moezidis. They were walking from her residence in the Cabernet Vineyards condominium complex to the visitor parking lot on a walkway underneath a canopy of trees growing on an adjacent property owned by San Jose Water Company whose branches grew over the shared property line. On the walkway, she stepped on something (later determined to be a walnut) that caused her to lose her balance. Moezidis was able to catch her and prevented her from falling to the ground. In June 2018, she filed suit not only against San Jose Water Company, but also against Cabernet Vineyards and Community Management Services Inc. In January 2022, San Jose Water Company filed a motion for summary judgment.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff Adams asserted claims against defendants, including San Jose Water Company, for general negligence and premises liability. She alleged that debris had fallen from the nearby trees, trees located on property that was owned and/or were in the possession of San Jose Water Company.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Specifically, defendant San Jose Water Company, maintained it was entitled to summary judgment because it had no duty of care with regard to the walkway where Adams was injured. Not only was the sidewalk on a neighboring property that was not part of its premises, it also had no notice of any hazard on Cabernet's property. Furthermore, according to Adams, she stepped on something that looked like a peach pit and which Moezidis described as something smaller than a jawbreaker. At the time of the incident, neither Adams nor Moezidis photographed the object; what they did was take a photograph of the walkway ten days later, when the trees had been noticeably trimmed, with the debris still accumulated on the walkway. Before the incident, Cabernet members were aware of the plants around the walkway and cleared it weekly. Between November 2015 and June 27, 2016, a member of the Cabernet board who traversed the walkway at least once a month testified that she used her power-washer on the walkway to wash away the debris near Adams's residence. The management company working for Cabernet Vineyards retained Brightview Landscape Services, professional arborist and tree maintenance, for maintenance of the property. On June 26, 2016, while Brightview and Cabernet performed the annual inspection of the property and they discussed getting authorization from San Jose Water Company to perform tree maintenance; but ultimately, neither notified them of any issues with the trees before July 6, 2016 nor does it appear that the trees were trimmed from June 26, 2016 to July 6, 2016. Duty to protect those who enter property is based on possession and control of the property of which San Jose Water Company had neither. It also did not have actual or constructive knowledge of the alleged dangerous condition, which consequently meant that it did not have a duty to maintain the trees and debris that may have dropped them onto Cabernet's walkway; that duty falls on Cabernet, the landowner.

Result

Because defendant San Jose Water Company did not own, control or possess the Cabernet walkway and had no notice of any hazard that existed there, it owed plaintiff Adams no duty of care to insect either those trees or the neighboring walkway to ensure that no debris was left and its motion for summary judgment was granted.