Kevin Ueda
Special to the Daily Press

WEST LA — Ponciano Lopez’s ritual of riding the bus to go shopping and eat lunch each Tuesday may never be the same after a bus allegedly struck him while he was standing on the curb last year.

Lopez, a Santa Monica resident of 17 years, filed a lawsuit against the Big Blue Bus Company for injuries he claims he sustained when a city bus hit him near Main Street and Ashland Avenue.

The 34-year-old is suing the city of Santa Monica, which operates the bus company, for $25,000 in medical expenses and pain and suffering, according to Mohammad Nadim, Lopez’s attorney.

Both sides will attempt to settle the case out of court during a mediation proceeding at the West Los Angeles Courthouse on July 5.

“If they are smart, they should offer this guy some money and resolve it,” Nadim said. “If they’re not smart, they’ll try this guy.”

However, Deputy City Attorney Debra Kanoff wonders if the incident even occurred in light of the bus driver never having come forward to claim responsibility, which is against policy and carries consequences.

But Nadim insists Lopez’s injuries — dislocations of his left shoulder and left elbow — are very real.

“When he came to my office, it (his arm) was in a sling, behind him,” Nadim said. “He said he couldn’t move his shoulder. Doctors gave him electric muscle stimulation. After four, five months of therapy ... he’s OK now.”

On March 1, 2005, Lopez was standing between the bus bench and the curb near the intersection of Main Street and Ashland Avenue when a No. 1 bus came too close to the curb and struck him on the left side of his body, Nadim said.

While Lopez continued working in the kitchen at the Stop and Go Cafe on the Third Street Promenade, where he has worked for the past decade — serving dishes and garnishing plates with his uninjured right hand — his medical bills amounted to about $8,000, Nadim said. The remainder of his claim is for pain and suffering.

Nadim, meanwhile, is trying to find out who was driving the bus in the alleged incident.

“(The) city’s hiding the identity of the driver from us,” Nadim said, adding he hoped to find out within the next two weeks. “After this incident ... I guess they transferred the bus driver.”

The driver would also likely be sued, said Nadim.

“They’re resisting ... I’ll get it from them by force,” Nadim said.

Kanoff countered that she does not know the driver’s identity and that she has no incentive to withhold the driver’s name.

“I’d love to know it,” Kanoff said. “Tell him (Nadim) when he finds out, I’d like to know.”

According to Kanoff, she has worked on previous cases that involved the Big Blue Bus, in which she has always provided the drivers’ names.

“I don’t know why I would choose this case to act any differently than in the last 25 years,” Kanoff said. “I can’t think of anything more ridiculous than to do something like that. It doesn’t benefit the city.”

There have been civil lawsuits in the past in which the incidents alleged proved to be false, Kanoff said.

“If a driver doesn’t come forward, there’s a good possibility that it didn’t happen,” Kanoff said. “The drivers are far from rewarded for not coming forward when accidents happen.”

In his deposition, which was in Spanish, Lopez claimed the incident occurred on Main Street and Ashley Street. But there is no Ashley Street in Santa Monica.

After driving to the site of the alleged incident, Nadim clarified that the intersection was Main Street and Ashland Avenue.

“There’s no way he (Lopez) could lie ... it’s just the way he talks,” Nadim said. “I’ve done this for 19 years. This guy is one of the most honest people I have seen in my life.”

Because the initial information provided in Lopez’s deposition was inconsistent with a later report, Kanoff said there is further chance that the incident never happened.

“I intend to mediate it in good faith, as I have for the past many years,” Kanoff said. “I’m certainly not going to agree that this case happened on Main and Ashley.”

If the case is not resolved in mediation, it will move toward a one-day judge trial on Oct. 16.