Cities Hiring Sacramento Lobbyist : New Drive Against Ruling on Beach Injury Lawsuits

Southern California beach communities are launching a new legislative offensive to overturn a 1982 appellate court ruling that triggered scores of multimillion-dollar lawsuits over beach injuries.

Still reeling from last year’s defeat, a group of coastal cities are pooling their resources to hire a high-powered Sacramento lobbyist to battle the powerful California Trial Lawyers Assn. on the issue.

Republican Sen. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach, who represents some coastal regions of Orange and San Diego counties, introduced a new bill Wednesday similar to one killed amid heavy lobbying by the trial lawyers last May.

With the attorneys and their lobbyists occupied fighting a June ballot issue to reform California’s “deep pockets” rule, officials in coastal cities say this year may be their best chance ever to restore legal immunities they enjoyed before the state Supreme Court let stand an appellate ruling in a lawsuit against the City of San Diego stemming from a 1978 drowning at Black’s Beach.

“We would like to think their ammunition is going to be leveled elsewhere,” said Bergeson, saying it is doubtful trial lawyers will support the new bill despite some minor changes from last year.

Bergeson became interested in the issue after Newport Beach lost a $6-million lawsuit in 1984 to a Claremont teen-ager who was paralyzed after diving into shallow water and striking a sand bar.

That case relied on the appellate ruling in the earlier drowning of Theresa Gonzales off Black’s Beach in La Jolla. The justices essentially said that public entities’ longstanding immunity from responsibility for “natural conditions” does not apply in areas where improvements have been made and municipal services such as police and lifeguards have been provided.

Although Gonzales’ children, who sued over their mother’s death, settled with the city for $25,000, the case gave rise to numerous other suits. Gonzales’ children contended that the that San Diego city officials had been aware of the unpredictable riptide conditions at the popular nude beach for years but had never posted warnings.

The San Diego ruling initially received little attention. But the Newport Beach verdict did.

Fearful they would be hit with similar large judgments, some cities along the coast began posting warning signs in several languages about all kinds of beach hazards--from rip currents to clearly visible pier pilings.

However, some other cities, including Laguna Beach, Long Beach and San Diego, resisted posting warning signs, fearing it would “exacerbate liability” in already pending suits.

Bergeson said her bill, which attempts to restore the immunity stripped away by the Gonzales ruling, “is addressing a need that cities feel they need to have.”

Bergeson said the Gonzales ruling punishes cities for “providing lifesaving services.” With skyrocketing insurance rates, she said, some cities might stop providing lifeguards as a means of reducing their potential liability.

John Witzel, Sacramento-based lobbyist for San Diego, said Bergeson’s bill, “watered down” since last year, “is not as strong as we would like it to be. But we’ll support it . . . as actively as we can.”

Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth Frank said Bergeson’s bill was intentionally narrowed to overcome objections raised by lawyers and some the senators who refused to support last year’s legislation.

While last year’s bill stated that unspecified improvements and services do not eliminate the statutory immunity, this year’s bill specifically lists “lifeguards, park rangers or other persons who render services to the public.”

“We have narrowed the scope of the bill as much as we could,” said Frank. “ . . . I don’t see how anyone can oppose it.”

Still, Frank said, several beach cities are going in together to hire a lobbyist who will make the fight for the measure a top priority. He estimated the coalition may spend as much as $25,000 on the effort.

Bergeson said that since last year’s bill was killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, she has met with officials from coastal cities she represents and had contacts with others statewide.

Trial Lawyers lobbyist Terrence Terauchi said the organization had not yet taken an official position on Bergeson’s new bill, but indicated that he “will certainly oppose any effort to overturn the Gonzales ruling.”

Terauchi said the cities want to shirk their duty to warn the public about known hazards such as riptides, shifting sand bars and hidden rock formations. Terauchi said he knows of no instance in which a city had been forced to pay a large judgment after giving adequate warnings about hazards.

The fact that hundreds of similar injuries had occurred over the years was one of the most damning pieces of evidence in the Newport Beach case. The city, which is appealing the verdict, has since posted warning signs about the invisible shifting sand bars.