Court Opinion

ID: 9571384
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:31:23.729875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:30:23.100702
License: Public Domain

BURKE, J.
I concur with the majority to the extent they hold that the state’s liability could be based upon its alleged concurrent negligence in *330failing to warn of a dangerous condition. (Gov. Code, § 830.8.) I dissent, however, from the majority’s determination that the state has failed to establish its design immunity under Government Code section 830.6.
The evidence showed that the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors approved design plans which disclosed the course of the proposed road and the elevation of the white center stripe of the road. Although the plans, drafted in the 1920’s, did not contain actual superelevation figures, that omission should not deprive the state of its design immunity under section 830.6. Given the curvature of the road and the elevation of its center line, the preparation of superelevation' figures would appear to be a matter of mere mathematical calculation, or at least a mechanical engineering task to be performed in the normal fashion in accordance with the standards existing in the 1920’s.
Indeed, the evidence in this case was that the road was superelevated in a normal and reasonable fashion, in accordance with then-existing standards. I find nothing in section 830.6 which would require that the approved plans expressly contain each and every element alleged to have contributed to a subsequent accident, in order to preserve the design immunity. It should be enough to show, as in this case, that the plans contemplated or incorporated by necessary implication normal or calculable construction or design standards. Under the circumstances in this case I think the state carried its burden of establishing its design immuntiy under section ,830.6.
McComb, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied July 5, 1972. McComb, J., and Burke, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.