Slip, Trip and Fall / Premises Liability in La Jolla

First the condition: photographs with something for scale, the height of a lifted slab, the missing handrail, the spill and how long it had been there. Then notice: complaints, prior incidents, inspection or cleaning logs, and how long the condition existed. Then ownership: whether the surface belongs to a business, a landlord, a homeowners association, a private owner, the City or another public entity.

Ownership decides the deadline as much as the defendant. A private owner's claim generally follows the two-year rule; a claim involving public property must usually be presented to the public entity within six months, which is why this question is answered first.

The Village of La Jolla dates from the 1887 La Jolla Park auction, and its sidewalks, private steps, courtyards and shop entrances were built and rebuilt over more than a century by many different owners. Along Prospect Street, Girard Avenue and Pearl Street, a fall on a sidewalk may involve the City, an adjoining owner, a tenant business or a private courtyard, and the line between them is a records question. Girard Avenue between Prospect Street and Silverado Street is the subject of the La Jolla Community Foundation's Village Streetscape project, a private initiative, which is a reminder that not every improvement in the public way is a City project.

By the water, Coast Walk, the paths around Ellen Browning Scripps Park and the Cove, and the bluffs above Windansea and the Children's Pool combine public park land, City right of way and private lots. On Torrey Pines Road, the City's slope restoration work between Little Street and Roseland Drive deals with erosion that washes material into the eastbound curb lane, the kind of public-property condition that brings the Government Claims Act into play.

Inland and in the desert the same split appears in shopping centers, apartment complexes and resort properties: a fall in a store aisle in Hemet or at a hotel pool deck in Palm Springs is a private-premises question, while a broken city sidewalk on Florida Avenue or Palm Canyon Drive may be a public-entity claim with the shorter clock.

Property owners and those in control of property must use ordinary care to keep it reasonably safe (Civil Code section 1714); liability usually depends on whether they knew or should have known of a dangerous condition and had time to fix it or warn. Comparative fault applies, so a visitor's own inattention reduces rather than bars recovery (CACI No. 405).

A public entity can be liable for a dangerous condition of its property if the condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the injury and the entity created it or had notice in time to protect against it (Government Code section 835). Before suing a public entity, a written claim must usually be presented within six months (Government Code sections 911.2 and 945.4). Against private owners, most claims must be filed within two years (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). General information only. Exceptions apply and deadlines can be shorter than you expect: confirm yours with an attorney.