Villa v. City of Long Beach CA2/7
Plaintiff Fermin Villa was injured when a car in which he was traveling struck a decorative boulder in the median of a public road located in Long Beach, California. Villa sued the defendant City of Long Beach for dangerous condition of public property, and the case was tried to a jury. On the second day of jury deliberations, an alternate juror submitted a note to the trial court in which she reported that the jurors were discussing their life experiences, such as their professional experience as an engineer, and asked that the jurors be redirected to focus on the evidence. While the court was considering the note, the jury reached a verdict, finding by a vote of nine to three that the property was not in a dangerous condition. The court took the verdict and discharged the jury without investigating the note or disclosing its existence to counsel. After Villa’s counsel learned of the note, he filed a motion for a new trial pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 657. The
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