Ramirez v. CHP
Officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) arrested a drunk driver on a city street in the Ingleside district of San Francisco in the early morning hours of July 12, 2003. They did not arrest two intoxicated passengers and left them with the drivers car in a nearby parking lot to wait for transportation. Shortly after the officers departed the scene, the passengers were ravaged with gunfire in a targeted attack; one died and the other was severely wounded. The survivor and the decedents mother (collectively Plaintiffs) sued the patrolmen and the CHP (collectively Defendants) for negligence in leaving the two men unprotected in these circumstances. The trial court granted summary judgment to the Defendants. Court affirm. Although law enforcement officers owe a duty to citizens not to induce detrimental reliance on the officers protection and not to increase their risk of harm, Plaintiffs here failed to raise triable issues of fact on breach of that duty.
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