Meister v. Regents

Filed 4/26/06 Meister v. Regents CA1/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

Plaintiff Sarah Meister seeks reversal of the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. We affirm the trial court's judgment.

BACKGROUND

Meister sued the Jewish Film Festival and the Regents of the University of California for general negligence and premises liability, contending she had broken her patella when she slipped on some liquid in the basement of Wheeler Hall, an incident described further below. The trial court granted the Regents' motion for summary judgment on January 24, 2005, finding that Meister did not establish evidence of constructive notice required by Government Code section 835, et seq. That ruling was not appealed.

Defendant subsequently moved for summary judgment, arguing that it did not rent or control the basement hallway area where Meister had slipped and fallen and, if it did, that it lacked actual or constructive notice of the liquid spill.

The relevant undisputed facts discussed in the summary judgment motion below are as follows. Approximately 9:00 p.m. on August 3, 2002, Meister arrived at the University of California's Wheeler Hall to view a film that defendant was showing in Wheeler Auditorium as a part of its annual film festival. Wheeler Hall is a large building on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley with numerous classrooms in addition to Wheeler Auditorium, which is located on the Hall's first floor. Defendant was showing films in Wheeler Auditorium from August 3 through August 8, 2002.

Meister claimed that, prior to the movie's showing, she went in search of a restroom, and that she was directed by defendant's staff to use the basement-level restrooms (defendant disputes that anyone directed Meister to the basement). As she was walking down the basement hallway to the restroom, Meister slipped and fell. She claimed that she slipped on a puddle of clear liquid, probably soda, approximately four to five inches in diameter. Meister did not know how the puddle got on the floor, how long the puddle was on the floor, what the exact substance of the liquid was, or who, if anyone, spilled the liquid. Meister claimed that she severely fractured her patella.

Arrangements for the use of Wheeler Auditorium for the film festival were made through a campus sponsor, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Center). The Center submitted in July 2002 to Cal Performances, which manages Wheeler Auditorium on behalf of the University of California at Berkeley for such events, a â€