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McCauley v. City of San Diego3/30/1987
COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION ONE
No. D004228
1987.CA.40821 ; 190 Cal. App. 3d 981; 235 Cal. Rptr. 732
March 30, 1987
MICHAEL MCCAULEY, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLANT,
v.
CITY OF SAN DIEGO, DEFENDANT AND RESPONDENT
Superior Court of San Diego County, No. 461309, Gilbert Harelson, Judge.
Miller & Frisch, Morton Frisch, Jeffrey Glasser, Gregory A. Maccasone and Philip DeMassa for Plaintiff and Appellant.
John W. Witt, City Attorney, Ronald L. Johnson, Senior Chief Deputy City Attorney, Eugene P. Gordon, Chief Deputy City Attorney, Leslie J. Girard and Patricia Davis, Deputy City Attorneys, for Defendant and Respondent.
Opinion by Work, J., with Kremer, P. J., and Lewis, J., concurring.
Work
Michael McCauley appeals a defense judgment on his complaint alleging the City of San Diego (City) owned and maintained a "dangerous condition" of property which proximately caused his injuries within the meaning of Government Code section 835. He contends the trial court erred in concluding the City was statutorily immune from liability for his injuries caused by a dangerous natural condition located on unimproved public property pursuant to sections 831.2 and 831.4, in part because he alleges the City has assumed "risk management" of the unimproved property by posting warning signs which proved to be inadequate. In particular, he claims the court failed to correctly interpret and apply the legal holding of Gonzales v. City of San Diego (1982) 130 Cal. App. 3d 882 [182 Cal. Rptr. 73], to the facts of this case. He further urges the trial court erred in failing to find the City had an independent duty to warn of known dangerous natural conditions pursuant to section 835 despite the immunity provisions of sections 831.2 and 831.4 where such negligence is an independent and separate cause for the accident. For the reasons which follow, we conclude the trial court's action is consistent with the holding of Gonzales v. City of San Diego, supra, 130 Cal. App. 3d 882. Further, the court properly found the City is immune under section 831.2 and owed no independent duty to warn of the known dangerous natural condition of its unimproved property. We affirm the judgment.
Factual and Procedural Background
On February 4, 1980, McCauley celebrated his 21st birthday with a group of friends and consumed a substantial quantity of alcohol during the day and evening hours. The group continued drinking at the cliffs overhanging Black's Beach in the Torrey Pines Recreational Area, where their car was parked near the end of the paved road entering the dark recreational area. Soon, the apparently intoxicated McCauley stumbled away. Several hours later, he was found lying in Flying Dutchman Gulch, approximately 200 feet down the cliff immediately above the beach. The approximate area from which McCauley fell was located about 400 yards from where he and his
friends parked. His blood alcohol level at 7:15 a.m. was .06 percent As a result of the fall, McCauley was in a coma for over three and one-half months and suffered substantial physical injuries, including traumatic amnesia which prevented him from supplying any specific details regarding the accident or events before it.
The trial was bifurcated and the issues of liability and contributory negli
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