Staats v. Vintner's Golf Club, LLC

236 Cal. Rptr. 3d 236, 25 Cal. App. 5th 826
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedAugust 1, 2018
DocketA147928
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 236 Cal. Rptr. 3d 236 (Staats v. Vintner's Golf Club, LLC) 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
Staats v. Vintner's Golf Club, LLC, 236 Cal. Rptr. 3d 236, 25 Cal. App. 5th 826 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Humes, P.J.

*830Plaintiff Carolyn Staats nearly died after being attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets while playing golf on a Yountville *239course operated by Vintner's Golf Club, LLC (Club). She sued the Club for general negligence and premises liability, but the trial court granted summary judgment against her on the basis that the Club owed no duty to protect its patrons from yellow jackets that came from an undiscovered nest on the course.

We reverse. We hold that the duty of golf course operators to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition includes a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect patrons from nests of yellow jackets on the premises. The measures a golf course operator must take to satisfy this duty may vary, and we do not address whether the Club breached its duty, or whether any such breach caused Staats's injuries. Here, those questions involve unresolved issues of material fact that must be determined by the trier of fact in the first instance.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In early July 2013, Staats was taking a golf lesson from Jeffrey Dennis, an instructor at the Club. As she prepared to take a shot on the fairway of the fifth hole, she was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets.1 She screamed, and Dennis tried to swat away the insects. The two then ran about 150 yards until the swarm stopped pursuing them.

Staats got into a car to be taken to the hospital and started losing consciousness. Dennis remembered there was a fire station close by, and he ran ahead to summon the paramedics outside while someone else drove *831Staats to the station. She was given a shot and quickly transported to a Napa hospital. A paramedic said Staats had been "within fifteen seconds" of dying.

Staats had been stung over 50 times, and she experienced "redness, welts, and swelling" all over her body. She spent the night in the intensive-care unit and missed over five weeks of work. The attack left her highly allergic to yellow jacket stings, and she now must be given three injections per month and carry multiple epinephrine pens.

At the time of the incident, the Club had no written policy on inspecting its grounds for dangerous conditions or pests. It did, however, have a pest-control company, Clark Pest Control (Clark), perform monthly inspections around the Club's restaurant and offices, primarily to discover and eradicate "roaches, insects, [and] ants." Both the Club's golf director and its grounds superintendent had seen stray yellow jackets or bees on the golf course before, but it is undisputed that before Staats was attacked the Club had no actual knowledge of any swarm, hive, or nest ever being on the grounds or of any patron ever being stung there. The Club never set traps or took other measures to control yellow jackets because it did not perceive them to be a problem.

The day after the attack, the Club's business manager inspected the area of the fifth hole but did not see "any bees or yellow jackets" or locate "anything that looked like any type of hive or nest." The following day, at the manager's request, a Clark employee also conducted an inspection after Dennis pointed out where the swarm attacked Staats. The Clark employee "walked around the area looking for a nest," and "[a]fter looking for approximately fifteen minutes, [he] saw an underground hole about one and a half inches *240around. It was near the edge of a sand trap and had a partial lip of grass over the hole. There were about four to [five] yellow jacket/wasp[-]looking bees on the ground and about a dozen flying around." The Clark employee sprayed the underground nest and left. Yellow jacket traps were also placed near the fifth hole.

Staats filed this lawsuit in September 2014, asserting causes of action for general negligence and premises liability. The Club moved for summary judgment, claiming that it owed no duty to protect patrons from "an attack by a wild swarm of insects without ... prior knowledge of [the swarm's] residence, congregation[,] or injury[-]producing behavior." The trial court granted the motion, finding that the Club "had no duty to protect against the risk in this case" because of the Club's "lack of knowledge" of "swarming yellow jackets or subterranean yellow jacket nests on the golf course fairway." The court entered final judgment for the Club in October 2015.

*832II.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review.

A motion for summary judgment is properly granted if "there is no triable issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." ( Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c).) A defendant moving for summary judgment must present evidence that either "conclusively negate[s] an element of the plaintiff's cause of action" or "show[s] that the plaintiff does not possess, and cannot reasonably obtain," evidence necessary to establish an element of the claim. ( Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 826, 853-854, 107 Cal.Rptr.2d 841, 24 P.3d 493.) If the defendant meets this burden, "the burden shifts to the plaintiff ... to show that a triable issue of one or more material facts exists as to the cause of action or a defense thereto." ( Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (p)(2).)

We review the record de novo, "liberally construing the evidence in support of the party opposing summary judgment and resolving doubts concerning the evidence in favor of that party." ( Miller v. Department of Corrections (2005) 36 Cal.4th 446, 460, 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 797, 115 P.3d 77.) "We affirm the trial court's decision if it is correct on any ground the parties had an adequate opportunity to address in the trial court, regardless of the reasons the trial court gave." ( Jameson v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 901, 909, 225 Cal.Rptr.3d 171.)

B. The Relevant Issue Is Whether the Club's Duty to Keep Its Premises Reasonably Safe Includes Protecting Patrons from Yellow Jacket Nests.

"The elements of a negligence claim and a premises liability claim are the same: a legal duty of care, breach of that duty, and proximate cause resulting in injury." ( Kesner v. Superior Court

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Bluebook (online)
236 Cal. Rptr. 3d 236, 25 Cal. App. 5th 826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/staats-v-vintners-golf-club-llc-calctapp5d-2018.