Rodriguez v. Dep't of Transp.

230 Cal. Rptr. 3d 852, 21 Cal. App. 5th 947
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedMarch 27, 2018
DocketF074027
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 230 Cal. Rptr. 3d 852 (Rodriguez v. Dep't of Transp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodriguez v. Dep't of Transp., 230 Cal. Rptr. 3d 852, 21 Cal. App. 5th 947 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

HILL, P.J.

*950While a public entity may be liable for injuries caused by dangerous conditions of public property ( Gov. Code, §§ 830, 835 ),1 the entity may avoid liability through the affirmative defense of design immunity (§ 830.6). ( Hampton v. County of San Diego (2015) 62 Cal.4th 340, 342, 195 Cal.Rptr.3d 773, 362 P.3d 417.) For design immunity to apply, the public entity " 'must establish three elements: (1) a causal relationship between the plan or design and the accident; (2) discretionary approval of the plan or design prior to construction; and (3) substantial evidence supporting the reasonableness of the plan or design.' " ( Ibid. )

The present case involves the second element-discretionary approval. Plaintiff Erik Rodriguez contends that a public official's approval of a design does not constitute an exercise of discretionary authority under section 830.6 *951if the official admits that he or she never actually considered whether to utilize the safety feature the plaintiff asserts would have prevented his or her injuries. We reject Rodriguez's contention and affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On the morning of April 29, 2013, Rodriguez was a passenger in a pickup truck *854that was traveling westbound on State Route 152 (SR 152) toward Los Banos when the truck ran off the road. At the accident location, SR 152 is a four-lane divided expressway with the westbound direction consisting of two 12-foot wide lanes, an eight-foot wide paved right shoulder, and a metal beam guardrail to the right of the outside shoulder. After the truck passed Box Car Road, it veered from the number one (fast) lane, across the number two (slow) lane and paved shoulder, and off the road to the right. The truck struck the end of the guardrail, went over an irrigation canal, and eventually came to rest, catching fire with the occupants still inside. Rodriguez and the driver were injured, and another passenger was killed.

Rodriguez sued the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for, among other things, maintaining an allegedly dangerous condition of public property. ( § 835.)2 Rodriguez alleged the guardrail was inadequate for its intended purpose, and the northern edge of the roadway and shoulder did not contain warning features, such as a "rumble strip," that would alert a driver who inadvertently veered onto the shoulder.

Caltrans moved for summary judgment or summary adjudication of issues on the grounds of, inter alia, design immunity under section 830.6 and the absence of evidence of a dangerous condition of public property.3 In support of the design immunity defense, Caltrans proferred design plans for SR 152 from 1992, 2002, and 2011 construction projects at the accident site; declarations of state engineers who explained their discretionary authority to approve those design plans and their actual approval of the plans; and declarations of other state engineers who confirmed the construction of SR 152 conformed to the approved plans.

The 1992 plans at the accident site involved installing a metal beam guardrail, widening the roadside to include an 8-foot paved shoulder and three feet of compacted shoulder backing that extended to the north end of the adjacent culvert, and flattening the existing roadside slope. Licensed civil *952engineer Shira Rajendra, the Caltrans project engineer who drafted the 1992 plans, declared that he had discretionary authority to approve the plans, which he exercised by signing them, and he would not have approved the plans had they not met appropriate engineering standards. With respect to the use of rumble strips, Rajendra declared: "I did not consider using rumble strips on the shoulders because at the time I approved the [1992] plans ..., the use of rumble strips was not a common practice. In 1992, there were no standards or policies which addressed or called for the design of shoulder rumble strips. In 1992, the absence of shoulder rumble strips at the subject location met the then existing standards for roadways."

The resident engineer responsible for the construction of the 1992 plans, Michael Honma, declared the project was completed in accordance with the plans Rajendra approved, as evidenced by the "AS BUILT" stamp shown on the applicable plan sheets. Honma explained that rumble strips were not installed because they were not included in the 1992 plans.

*855The 2002 plans consisted of a pavement maintenance project and placement of a seal coat at the accident location, while the 2011 plans involved placing an overlay of the existing asphalt at several specified locations on SR 152, including the accident location. The project engineers for both projects, John Fukano and Jose Alicea II, declared that they exercised their discretionary authority in approving the plans, and that each plan did not include rumble strips because neither engineer received a directive from "District 10 Traffic Safety" to install the strips. The resident engineers on each plan project, Nomer Gutierrez and Sukhminder Deol, declared the projects were completed in according with the plans, as evidenced by the "AS BUILT" stamp shown on the applicable plan sheets, and the plans did not include the addition of rumble strips.

Caltrans's expert, consulting civil engineer Kim Nystrom, opined the absence of rumble strips in all of the plans was reasonable because there was no identified need for them. Caltrans did not widely use shoulder rumble strips in 1992, and they would not have been included in design plans unless there was a documented need for them, such as a history of vehicles running off the road. As for the later plans, the fact rumble strips were not included indicated the district's traffic safety branch did not recommend their use. According to Nystrom, the reasonableness of the plans was further supported by the fact there had not been any collisions at the accident site that involved vehicles departing the roadway to the right and striking either the guardrail or irrigation ditch.

Rodriguez opposed the motion, stating that he had elected to proceed only on the " 'absence of rumble strips' theory of 'dangerous condition' liability [,]"

*953and he was not contesting the first or third elements of design immunity, namely the existence of a causal relationship and reasonableness of the design.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
230 Cal. Rptr. 3d 852, 21 Cal. App. 5th 947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodriguez-v-dept-of-transp-calctapp5d-2018.