Judge Rules Against Suit Over Injuries During Riots : Courts: The plaintiff claimed that he should have been protected from being pulled from his truck and beaten. Ruling upholds immunity for government agencies.

A man who was pulled from his truck and beaten during last year’s riots has no right to sue government agencies for failing to protect him, a Superior Court judge said Thursday.

James Greer’s lawsuit, filed in January, was the first seeking damages for riot injuries to reach a courtroom. Judge John Zebrowski ruled Greer has no claim, but his attorney, Dennis O’Sullivan, said the decision will be appealed.

“We’ve only just begun to fight,” he said.

Greer, a computer technician from Norwalk, stopped last April 30 for a traffic signal at the corner of Imperial Highway and Vermont Avenue and was attacked. After he was bludgeoned with iron bars, according to court documents, “his attackers drove over him in their cars as they left.”

Greer suffered a fractured skull and has since had vision and hearing problems, O’Sullivan said. Greer has been under the care of about 20 doctors in the last year. He has not returned to work.

Zebrowski agreed with legal objections raised by attorneys for the city and county of Los Angeles, as well as the state of California, all defendants in the suit. They argued that the California Government Code provides immunity for failure to enforce laws or provide police protection--an argument also successfully used against claimants after the Watts riots.

The judge’s decision could signal the fate of other suits stemming from the riots, said Eric C. Taylor, a deputy county counsel. “I would hope other individuals who are looking to file lawsuits would understand those municipalities did the best they could, and they have immunity.”

The judge agreed that Greer had no legal grounds for his suit and found “no potential for successful amendment on the existing law.” He dismissed the suit without leave to amend, meaning it cannot be refiled.

“As far as I’m concerned, the case is dead meat,” said Assistant City Atty. Ward McConnell.

But O’Sullivan said: “We disagree with the judge. There is immunity that allows the defendants to bring this motion, but we disagree with the judge in the interpretation of the (government) code.”

Contending that government immunity is not a blanket protection against negligence, O’Sullivan said he will file a motion for reconsideration of the ruling. If that is unsuccessful, he said, an appeal will be filed.

Alan Calnan, a Southwestern University School of Law professor, said the decision is a “bad sign” for such cases. “It indicates that in other cases which may involve similar facts that the court is going to be predisposed not to find a duty. And if there is no duty, there can be no liability.”

Greer’s case was among the first filed from about 2,900 claims against the city and 2,200 against the county seeking compensation for injuries and losses. Others who have filed lawsuits are Larry Tarvin, a trucker injured at the corner of Florence and Normandie avenues, and relatives of Matthew Haines, a motorcyclist killed by rioters in Long Beach.

A case filed by radio reporter Bob Brill in U.S. District Court was dropped by his attorney, Stephen Yagman, several months ago. “None of these lawsuits can succeed,” he said, “and that’s a bad thing. People ought to be able to sue the government for failure to provide emergency services.”

Riot-related claims will not change existing law, Yagman added: “That is something that would need to be done by the Legislature and never could be done by the courts.”