Court Opinion

ID: 9796952
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:09:06.261004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:51:50.226891
License: Public Domain

WERDEGAR, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the judgment affirming the Court of Appeal. Because plaintiff requested the instructions given the jury, he cannot now complain they were erroneous or incomplete. I write separately to distance myself from any implication by the majority that the instructions were correct and to state my view of what the statutory scheme governing a public entity’s liability for injuries caused by a dangerous condition on its property requires the plaintiff to prove.
*1140As the majority states, the plaintiff must show that the defendant acted negligently (or wrongfully), and the jury may properly be so instructed. As the majority also states, if the plaintiff shows that the defendant created the dangerous condition, that showing is “itself sufficient to warrant a finding that it did so negligently.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1133.) Here, the jury did not find that defendant created the dangerous condition (see id. at p. 1131); hence it lacked that basis on which to hold defendant liable for negligence. But in a case where the jury finds the defendant did create a dangerous condition, i.e., “a condition of property that creates a substantial (as distinguished from a minor, trivial or insignificant) risk of injury when such property or adjacent property is used with due care in a manner in which it is reasonably foreseeable that it will be used” (Gov. Code,1 § 830, subd. (a)), the plaintiff has met his or her initial burden to show the defendant did so negligently, and the jury may so find, unless the defendant proves to the jury’s satisfaction, as permitted by section 835.4, that its act or omission in creating the dangerous condition “was reasonable.” (Id., subd. (a).) As the California Law Revision Commission comment to section 835.4 explains, “Under this section, a public entity may absolve itself from liability for creating or failing to remedy a dangerous condition by showing that it would have been too costly and impractical for the public entity to have done anything else.” (Cal. Law Revision Com. com., reprinted at 32 West’s Ann. Gov. Code (1995 ed.) foll. § 835.4, p. 434, italics added.)
As the majority correctly notes, “ ‘Because the official comments of the California Law Revision Commission “are declarative of the intent not only of the draftsman of the code but also of the legislators who subsequently enacted it” [citation], the comments are persuasive, albeit not conclusive, evidence of that intent [citation].’ (Bonanno v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority (2003) 30 Cal.4th 139, 148 [132 Cal.Rptr.2d 341, 65 P.3d 807]____)” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1132.) Clearly the commission was of the view, as am I, that once the plaintiff has shown the public entity has created a dangerous condition, the entity is hable, subject to its ability to advance the affirmative defense that to have done anything else would have been too costly and impractical.
In sum, I agree with the majority that the trial court here “properly required the jury to find, as a basis for liability, either that the County acted negligently (§ 835, subd. (a)) or had notice of the dangerous condition (§ 835, subd. (b)).” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1131.) But the trial court’s instructions were incomplete, thus creating the possibility that the public entity defendant might, contrary to legislative intent, benefit from a section 835.4 defense to which it had not proven its entitlement. The court should have further *1141instructed the jury that creation of a dangerous condition is negligence, unless the public entity can show it was reasonable under the circumstances.

 All statutory references are to the Government Code.