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Anaya v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County2/13/2002
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
Eleven-year-old Norma Vides, a passenger in a car driven by Pedro Anaya, was seriously injured when Anaya's car collided with a sanitation truck owned by the City of Los Angeles. A helicopter owned by the City of Los Angeles picked up Norma to take her to the hospital. On the way, the helicopter crashed and Norma died. Norma's mother (Genoveva Anaya) and father (Alfredo Vides) sued the City of Los Angeles for wrongful death damages. Plaintiffs (who owned the car) did not have liability insurance. Pedro Anaya (the 17-year-old driver) was uninsured and unlicensed. The City answered and conducted discovery, then filed a motion for summary adjudication in which it asked the trial court to determine, as a matter of law, that Plaintiffs' status as the uninsured owners and operators of an involved motor vehicle precludes their recovery of non-economic damages. (Civ. Code, ยง 3333.4.) Plaintiffs did not dispute the relevant facts but opposed the motion on the ground that Norma's death did not "arise out of" the collision within the meaning of section 3333.4. The trial court granted the motion. Plaintiffs then filed a petition for a writ of mandate, asking us to direct the trial court to vacate its order. We issued an order to show cause and set the matter for hearing. We now grant the petition as prayed.
DISCUSSION
A. The Statute
As relevant, section 3333.4 provides:"(a) n any action to recover damages arising out of the operation or use of a motor vehicle, a person shall not recover non-economic losses to compensate for pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, and other non-pecuniary damages if . . . [ ] . . . [ ] (2) The injured person was the owner of a vehicle involved in the accident and the vehicle was not insured as required by the . . . laws of this state [ ] (3) The injured person was the operator of a vehicle involved in the accident and the operator can not establish his or her financial responsibility as required by the . . . laws of this state. . . ."
B. The Issue
We have previously held that, for purposes of overcoming the truck drivers' demurrers, Plaintiffs have alleged facts sufficient to plead the elements of duty and breach for a negligence (wrongful death) cause of action. (Anaya v. Superior Court, supra, 78 Cal.App.4th at p. 976 [it is foreseeable to a driver that the victim of an automobile accident will have to be transported to a medical facility by automobile or helicopter and that, on the way, the victim may suffer further injuries].) As viewed by the City, this means we have found that its negligence in causing the automobile accident is (if proved) the cause of Norma's death in the helicopter crash; it follows, according to the City, that Norma's death necessarily "arose out of" the automobile accident. With regard to the City's liability (if any) as the owner of the sanitation trucks and the employer of the sanitation truck drivers, we agree. (Harris v. Lammers (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 1072, 1076 [as used in section 3333.4, "arising out of" means that "something grows out of or flows from an event"].) But we do not agree with the City that, as a result of this analysis, it is entitled to the benefit of section 3333.4, with regard to all of the Plaintiffs' claims.
The City's syllogism stops too soon, and ignores the fact that Plaintiffs have sued the City in two capacities -- as the owner and operator of the sanitation trucks (the claim is that the drivers were not properly trained and, as a result, were negligent in the manner in which they stopped on the street) and as the owner and operator of the helicopter (the claim is that the helicopter was n
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