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Anaya v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County2/29/2000
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING; Petition for Writ of Mandate. Rodney E. Nelson, Judge. Petition granted.
We hold that the demurrer of Ralph Rodriguez Diaz, Gabriel Eudalgo Lara, and Robert Wayne Everton to the complaint of Genoveva Anaya and Alfredo Vides should have been overruled.
Anaya and Vides allege that their 11-year-old daughter, Norma Vides, was with them when their car collided with a Los Angeles City trash truck that was stopped in the number two lane of a road. Injured in the crash, Norma was airlifted by City helicopter; the helicopter crashed and Norma died. Anaya and Vides sued City of Los Angeles and the individual drivers of the trash truck, Ralph Diaz and Gabriel Lara, for, inter alia, wrongful death. They also named Robert Everton, but the complaint does not set forth any facts as to Everton.
City and individual defendants Diaz, Lara, and Everton demurred. Respondent court overruled City's demurrer, but sustained the demurrer of the individual defendants on the basis that Norma's death was not foreseeable.
DISCUSSION
An actor may be liable if the actor's negligence is a substantial factor in causing an injury, and the actor is not relieved of liability because of the intervening act of a third person if such act was reasonably foreseeable at the time of the original negligent conduct. (Vesely v. Sager (1971) 5 Cal.3d 153, 163.) "The foreseeability required is of the risk of harm, not of the particular intervening act." (Torres v. Xomox Corp. (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 1, 18.)
To determine that "`a negligent actor liable for another's harm, it is necessary not only that the actor's conduct be negligent toward the other, but also that the negligence of the actor be a legal cause of the other's harm.' `Legal cause' exists if the actor's conduct is a `substantial factor' in bringing about the harm and there is no rule of law relieving the actor from liability." [Citations.] (Nola M. v. University of Southern California (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 421, 427.)
It has long been the rule that a tortfeasor responsible for the original accident is also liable for injuries or death occurring during the course of medical treatment to treat injuries suffered in that accident. In Ash v. Mortensen (1944) 24 Cal.2d 654, the Supreme Court stated: "It is settled that where one who has suffered personal injuries by reason of the tortious act of another exercises due care in securing the services of a doctor and his injuries are aggravated by the negligence of such doctor, the law regards the act of the original wrongdoer as a proximate cause of the damages flowing from the subsequent negligent medical treatment and holds him liable therefor." (Id. at p. 657, citing Dewhirst v. Leopold (1924) 194 Cal. 424, 433.)
In Hastie v. Handeland (1969) 274 Cal.App.2d 599, a case involving a vehicular collision and subsequent death of the victim following medical care, Division One of the Fourth District determined that the original tortfeasor was liable for the subsequent injury suffered during medical treatment. (Id. at pp. 604-605.) "If death resulted from a risk inherent in the medical treatment reasonably required to cure the injuries caused by the accident, respondents [original tortfeasors] would be liable irrespective of whether such treatment was rendered in a proper or a negligent manner. The question is one of causation, and where the additional harm results either from the negligence of doctors or hospitals who furnish necessary medical care, or from the materialization of a risk inherent to necessary medical care, the chain of causation set in motion by the original tort remains unbroken.
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