Gerlach v. Cove Apartments, LLC

446 P.3d 624
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMay 13, 2019
DocketNo. 77179-5-I
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 446 P.3d 624 (Gerlach v. Cove Apartments, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gerlach v. Cove Apartments, LLC, 446 P.3d 624 (Wash. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

Smith, J.

*817¶1 Kimberly Gerlach sued The Cove Apartments LLC and Weidner Property Management LLC (collectively Cove) after she fell from a second story apartment balcony with a rotted railing and suffered life threatening injuries. Gerlach was extremely intoxicated at the time of the fall. At trial, Cove sought to limit its liability by proving that Gerlach's intoxication was the proximate cause of her damages and that she was more than 50 percent at fault, in accordance with the affirmative defense of voluntary intoxication *628under RCW 5.40.060(1). Because the trial court abused its discretion by excluding evidence of Gerlach's blood alcohol level at the time of the accident and that exclusion prejudiced Cove's ability to prove Gerlach's intoxication proximately caused her injuries, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

FACTS

¶2 On October 26, 2012, Gerlach and her boyfriend Nathan Miller, along with Colin and Brodie Liddell,1 went to a birthday party and then to a bar within walking *818distance of Miller's apartment. Miller lived in a second story unit at The Cove Apartments in Federal Way, which were owned by The Cove Apartments LLC and managed by Weidner Property Management LLC. After the bar closed in the early hours of October 27, Miller and Colin stopped by a convenience store to buy beer, while Gerlach and Brodie returned to Miller's apartment. Brodie stopped to smoke a cigarette before going inside. While he was smoking, he heard a snap and turned in time to see Gerlach in midair, just before she landed head-first on a concrete step on the ground floor. A rotted railing from Miller's balcony also fell near Gerlach. Gerlach suffered a life threatening head injury as a result of the fall.

¶3 Gerlach sued Cove, alleging breach of contract, violations of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 1973 (RLTA), chapter 59.18 RCW, and negligence. The breach of contract claim was dismissed on summary judgment because Gerlach was not a tenant and had no contractual relationship with Cove.

¶4 Although no one witnessed how Gerlach fell and Gerlach does not remember the events of that night, her theory at trial was that the severely rotted railing on Miller's balcony gave way while she was leaning on it, causing her to fall to the ground. Relying on testimony from a biomechanical expert, Cove proffered an alternative theory: that Gerlach did not have a key to the front door, tried to enter the apartment via the balcony, and fell while trying to climb over the balcony railing from the outside. This theory supported Cove's affirmative defense under RCW 5.40.060(1) that Gerlach was intoxicated at the time of the accident, her intoxication was a proximate cause of her injuries, and she was more than 50 percent at fault. To this end, Cove attempted to introduce evidence that Gerlach's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time of the accident was .238 and expert testimony on how a BAC of that level would affect a person's judgment, psychomotor functions, and cognitive abilities. The trial court excluded *819this evidence and testimony because it found they were more prejudicial than probative. Instead, the trial court instructed the jury that Gerlach "was under the influence of intoxicating liquor at the time of the accident."

¶5 The jury found that Cove was negligent and that its negligence proximately caused Gerlach's injuries. It also found that Gerlach was contributorily negligent and seven percent at fault. The jury verdict was $3,799,793.78, and the net award to Gerlach was $3,533,808.23.

¶6 Cove appeals.

ANALYSIS

Exclusion of Gerlach's Blood Alcohol Level

¶7 Cove argues that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding evidence of Gerlach's blood alcohol level and that the exclusion was prejudicial. We agree.

¶8 We reverse a trial court's evidentiary rulings only upon a showing of abuse of discretion. Subia v. Riveland, 104 Wash. App. 105, 113-14, 15 P.3d 658 (2001). "A trial court abuses its discretion if its decision is manifestly unreasonable or based on untenable grounds or untenable reasons." In re Marriage of Littlefield, 133 Wash.2d 39, 46-47, 940 P.2d 1362 (1997). But an error does not require reversal unless it is prejudicial, and "[e]rror will not be considered prejudicial unless it affects, or presumptively affects, the outcome of the trial."

*629Brown v. Spokane County Fire Prot. Dist. No. 1, 100 Wash.2d 188, 196, 668 P.2d 571 (1983).

¶9 "All relevant evidence is admissible unless its admissibility is otherwise limited." Salas v. Hi-Tech Erectors, 168 Wash.2d 664, 669, 230 P.3d 583 (2010) ; ER 402. "Evidence is relevant if it has 'any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.' " Salas, 168 Wash.2d at 669, 230 P.3d 583 (quoting ER 401). ER 403 allows a trial court to exclude *820relevant evidence if "its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice ...." "When evidence is likely to stimulate an emotional response rather than a rational decision, a danger of unfair prejudice exists." Salas, 168 Wash.2d at 671,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
446 P.3d 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gerlach-v-cove-apartments-llc-washctapp-2019.