Facts

On Jan. 14, 2017, 6-year-old plaintiff Jane Doe was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street at night within a marked crosswalk in the City of Long Beach. Plaintiff brought this lawsuit against defendant City of Long Beach for dangerous condition and against defendant driver for negligence seeking monetary damages for her personal injuries.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that the marked crosswalk, despite being marked with extensive signage and having no significant accident history, is a dangerous condition that caused this incident. Plaintiff contended this crossing required a flashing beacon to alert a driver when a pedestrian is crossing and provide the pedestrian with sufficient time to safely cross.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant City of Long Beach denied liability and contended that the driver, plaintiff, and plaintiff's mother were all at fault. Defendant contended that it was entitled to design immunity due to a causal relationship between the plan/design and the incident; and there was discretionary approval of the plan/design before construction. Further, defendant city contended there was no notice or knowledge that that crosswalk was dangerous.

Settlement Discussions

The parties participated in two mediations with no settlement. The parties continued settlement negotiations for weeks. A settlement was reached a few days before trial.

Injuries

Plaintiff sustained a traumatic brain injury. However, the nature and extent of plaintiff's injuries were heavily disputed as she appeared to be a normal functioning adolescent engaged in age-appropriate activities such as playing at the park, going to school and making Tik Tok videos. Moreover, plaintiff had pre-existing developmental delays, borderline intelligence levels and behavioral issues. Further, there were significant post-incident stressors plaintiff experienced that defendant's experts testified amounted to a diagnosis of PTSD and anxiety.

Result

Plaintiff settled with defendants for $23,015,000.

Other Information

Through extensive discovery, plaintiff established a factual dispute as to whether there was discretionary approval for the plan before construction of the crosswalk as it existed on the date of loss. Plaintiff's expert showed that the City had two sets of plans. One of them was not adopted and the second plan was unsigned. The City produced plans signed in support of their design immunity defense, however, plaintiff showed that the signed plans did not match what was constructed and the unsigned/unapproved plans did match what was built. Ultimately, plaintiff proved there is no design immunity since the city failed to provide a set of approved drawings showing discretionary approval of the intersection as it existed on the date of the incident. Further, through much investigation and discovery (including depositions of crossing guards and residents near this crosswalk), plaintiff proved that defendant City of Long Beach knew long before the incident, that the crosswalk was a dangerous condition, despite not having significant accident history. Plaintiff proved that defendant city knew there was a high volume of pedestrians crossing at the crosswalk, that some drivers tended to speed in this area, that drivers did not always stop for pedestrians while they crossed, and that drivers do not expect pedestrians to be crossing at this location.