Teng v. State California (Caltrans)
In this appeal, the minor plaintiffs, Janeille Teng and Brenda Teng, through their guardian ad litem Pros Charlie Ouk, and their grandmother, Chrin Ming (plaintiffs), challenge a summary judgment granted to the State of California (defendant). The case stems from a vehicular accident on State Route 60 (the Pomona Freeway). The vehicle in which plaintiffs were riding left the freeway, went down an embankment, and hit a tree. The plaintiffs were severely injured in the accident, and the parents of the two minor plaintiffs (their mother, Seang Teng, and their father, Tong Vann), who were also in the vehicle, died at the scene.
After filing a tort claim with defendant, plaintiffs sued defendant for premises liability.[1] In ruling on defendants motion for summary judgment, the trial court determined that based on (1) the number of accidents in which a vehicle went over the embankment at or near the accident site in the three years preceding the accident, and (2) the number of vehicles using Route 60 at or near the accident site during those three years, defendant established a prima facie case that the condition of the freeway that plaintiffs contend caused their own injuries and their parents deaths (hereinafter, plaintiffs injuries) does not constitute a dangerous condition. The trial court further ruled that because plaintiffs did not demonstrate that the number of prior accidents in that three-year period exceeds ordinary statistical probabilities for the number of vehicles traveling along that portion of the freeway, plaintiffs did not present a triable issue of fact concerning whether that portion of the freeway constitutes a dangerous condition.
Court's examination of the record convinces court the summary judgment affirmed.
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