Wagner v. City of San Diego
The record here shows the decedent in this wrongful death case may have been walking on a trail which runs between a guardrail and a sheer cliff above the ocean when she fell from the cliff and was fatally injured. Because the trail was not part of a public street, the municipality which owns the trail argued in the trial court that it is immune from liability for her death as a matter of law. The trial court agreed with the municipality and granted its motion for summary judgment. We reverse.
Although the evidence in the record permits an inference the decedent was walking west of the guardrail and on the trail, the evidence also permits the inference the decedent was walking on the shoulder of a public street east of the guardrail when she tripped or fell over the guardrail and from there over the cliff. If a trier of fact accepted the later inference, the immunity the municipality asserts would not apply. Thus, in light of the conflicting inferences raised by the record, the trial court erred in finding the statutory immunity applied as a matter of law.
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