Senate Panel Kills Bill Limiting Cities’ Liability at Beaches

In a major setback for coastal cities, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday rejected a bill intended to limit lawsuits for injuries at public beaches and other recreational areas.

Members of the panel said California beach cities, which had characterized the bill as their top legislative priority this year, were trying to shield themselves from their responsibility to protect the public from known dangers.

The bill by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), similar to one killed by the same committee last year, would have restored a legal immunity for public entities that was stripped away in a 1982 appellate court ruling that stemmed from a riptide drowning at Black’s Beach in San Diego.

Under Bergeson’s bill, which failed on a 6-5 vote, beach cities could be held responsible for certain injuries only if their actions added to the dangerous conditions that caused them. The bill stated that the “mere provision of public safety services” like lifeguards does not strip away public entities’ immunity regarding injuries that result from “natural conditions.”

“Public entities should not be unfairly punished for attempting to make a potentially dangerous recreational environment safe,” Bergeson said.

After the final vote was announced at 10 p.m., Bergeson was uncertain about her future strategy, but said, “The issue is not dead.”

Bergeson had been trying to restore the immunity since the City of Newport Beach, which is in her district, was slapped with a $6-million jury verdict resulting from injuries to John Taylor, now 24, who was paralyzed after diving into the ocean and striking a sandbar.

Since that 1984 verdict, city, county and state beaches up and down California’s 840-mile coastline have been bombarded with similar lawsuits. Government officials say many of the lawsuits were inspired by the well-publicized Taylor verdict.

David Casselman, attorney for Los Angeles County, said five people who were paralyzed as a result of diving injuries are each asking $10 million in damages from the county. Four of the five lawsuits, Casselman said, were filed after the Taylor verdict.

He added that an eyewitness in one of the Los Angeles cases said the injured bather “walked to the edge of the wet sand . . . and dove into the foam.” But in all the cases, he said, plaintiffs have claimed that they, like Taylor, struck an underwater sandbar.

But some senators were unimpressed.

“We can’t change the law every time someone files a silly lawsuit,” Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), chairman of the committee, told Casselman.

The bill was one of the first tort reforms considered in the Legislature since last month’s elections, when 62% of California voters approved Proposition 51, which reformed the so-called “deep pocket” rules. Backers had hoped that the vote would be viewed as an indication that California voters are intolerant of large judgments, and would win support for Bergeson’s bill.

But representatives of the California Trial Lawyers Assn. (CTLA), which heavily lobbied against the bill, argued that the verdict against Newport Beach in the Taylor case was well-deserved.

Until the Taylor verdict, Newport Beach had never posted any warning signs regarding the underwater, shifting sandbars, although there had been hundreds of similar injuries in the area that resulted in paralysis, a CTLA spokesman said. But signs were posted at all 80 entrances to the city’s beaches stating that dogs and alcholic beverages were prohibited, the spokesman added.

In Florida, CTLA spokesmen claimed, officials cut paralyzing injuries in half by posting warnings advising beachgoers to dive feet first.