City Hall may still have to pay millions
SM COURTHOUSE — Attorneys for a nonprofit that oversees the downtown district argued here on Friday to have their client removed from a civil lawsuit filed by victims of the deadly Farmer’s Market crash that occurred more than three years ago.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Valerie Baker listened intently for nearly three hours as attorneys for Bayside District Corp. presented evidence they said proves the public-private management company is responsible for advising City Hall on matters related to downtown, but never assumed the duty of providing security or ensuring the safety of visitors to the Farmers’ Market on Arizona Avenue.
Bayside is essentially a chamber of commerce that “puts up Christmas lights and the Hanukkah menorah,” and not a governing body whose responsibility is to develop and implement a traffic management plan, said Dana Fox, an attorney for Bayside and City Hall.
“There is no evidence that Bayside has any knowledge of traffic engineering,”Fox added.
Attorneys for the victims argued that Bayside’s contract with City Hall explicitly states that the organization is responsible for “planning, development, management and coordination of programs, projects and services designed to benefit the community as a whole,” which includes the Farmers’ Market, held every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Arizona Avenue, between Fourth and Second streets.
By failing to adequately protect shoppers from vehicles entering the market, attorneys for the victims said Bayside should be held responsible for those who were killed or injured on July 16, 2003, when George Russell Weller, then 86, drove his car through plastic barricades and into the crowded market.
Baker tentatively ruled earlier this week that Bayside seems to have accepted the duty of providing a safe environment for visitors and a jury should decide whether or not the management company was negligent in doing so.
Following a month-long criminal trial, Weller, who turns 90 this month, was found guilty in October of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and was sentenced to five years probation in connection with the deaths of 10 people, including a 7-month old and a married couple from New York City.
Defense attorneys argued Weller suffered from “pedal error” — a rare phenomenon by which a panicked driver hits the accelerator rather than the brake — and mistakenly drove into the market, with the impact of collisions causing his air bag to deploy and preventing him from gaining control of his car.
The incident lasted roughly 20 seconds, according to defense attorneys.
Jurors sided with the prosecution, which said Weller acted recklessly following a minor fender-bender and failed to use all means at his disposal to direct his Buick LaSabre away from the market, instead sending it on a deadly collision course.
Weller’s attorneys are appealing his conviction. He is named as a defendant in the civil case, which includes 36 plaintiffs.
City Hall, the Southland Farmers Market Association — promoters of the market — and Step Up on Second, a social service agency whose members volunteered at the market, were also named in the civil suit.
CITY MADE ITS CASE In a 19-page ruling that took more than three weeks to draft, Baker earlier this year found City Hall could not be held liable for the accident because it had established and executed a traffic control plan that was approved by a licensed traffic engineer.
Known as design immunity, municipalities are protected in a lawsuit if the design of an intersection, or in this case, a traffic management plan, meets conditions established by law. In this case, Baker ruled that the way in which streets were closed and traffic redirected during the Farmers’ Market was acceptable.
Southland was subsequently granted a motion for summary judgment by Baker.
Meanwhile, Step Up on Second, whose clients placed the plastic barriers at the entrance to the market, is in the process of finalizing a $5 million settlement with victims and their families, attorneys for the plaintiffs said.
“While we have believed from the very beginning that Step Up has had no responsibility for the tragedy — in fact, Step Up members were victims themselves that day — our insurance company decided the most prudent course of action was to settle the case,” Tod Lipka, CEO of Step Up, told the Daily Press in October.
That leaves only Weller and Bayside as defendants in the case. Earlier this year, Bayside asked Baker to remove the management company from the civil suit, a request which was denied. Friday’s hearing marked the second time Bayside has asked to be removed from the case.
Attorneys filed a second motion for summary judgment on the grounds that new evidence had surfaced. The evidence included a deposition by Howard Robinson, a former economic development manager with City Hall who testified that Bayside could have asked about traffic management, but it was not their duty to do so.
Robinson’s deposition was not considered by Baker when she denied the earlier motion for summary judgment, attorneys for Bayside said.
Because of an agreement with Bayside, City Hall may have to pay millions in damages if Bayside is found liable by a jury.
Baker may have a ruling as early as next week.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 9, 2006. Read the original PDF.