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Trujillo v. City of Albuquerque8/27/1990
{PA}
Page 622} RANSOM, Justice.
Lawrence Trujillo obtained a personal injury judgment of $547,905.80 against the City of Albuquerque. His injuries occurred when a City employee, Clarence M. Wright, drove a City crane through a red light and collided with a cement truck driven by Trujillo. Negligent maintenance of the crane's brakes and its negligent operation were found by the court in this nonjury trial to be concurrent proximate causes of the collision.
The trial court determined that, under Section 41-4-19(A)(2) of the Tort Claims Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 41-4-1 to -27 (Repl. Pamp. 1986), the accident involved two occurrences, and thus that the limit of the City's liability under the Tort Claims Act was twice the $300,000 cap for "any person for any number of claims arising out of a single occurrence." The court of appeals reversed this determination. The court of appeals also reversed the trial court's ruling that the damage provisions in question violated Trujillo's right to equal protection under the federal and state constitutions. We granted certiorari to review these issues. Amicus briefs were filed in this Court and before the court of appeals by the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association (NMTLA), the New Mexico Municipal League, the New Mexico Medical Society, and the Risk Management Division of the State General Services Department (Risk Management). Upon review of the opinion of the court of appeals, the briefs, and the record, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions.
Negligent maintenance and negligent operation of vehicle gave rise to a since occurrence. The trial court found two proximate causes produced the accident: (1) the City's negligent maintenance of the crane's brakes, and (2) Wright's negligent operation of the crane. Trujillo argues that under a causation theory there are two occurrences. However, in , this Court rejected a causation rationale relied upon by the court of appeals to define a single occurrence in that case. In Folz we held that, when a governmental entity has committed successive negligent acts or omissions, the determination of the number of occurrences cannot be made simply by counting the number of such acts or omissions. As did the court of appeals in the present case, we specifically noted in Folz that multiple proximate causes attributable to the governmental entity
may combine with other concurrent causes to produce but a single occurrence.
Here, the City's negligent maintenance of the crane's brakes produced a risk of harm that was concurred in and triggered by Wright's negligent operation of the crane. The risk created by the faulty brakes gave rise to liability only when Wright drove the crane into the intersection. Therefore, we hold there was but a single occurrence when successive negligent acts or omissions of the governmental entity combined concurrently to create a singular risk (of collision) and to proximately cause injury triggered by a discrete event (the crane's entry into the intersection).
Constitutionality of individual cap -- nature of the issue. The trial court found Section 41-4-19 to be unconstitutional because "no rational distinction [exists] between victims of a tort inflicted by a private person and victims of a tort inflicted by a public employee or [a governmental] entity." The court of appeals (applying heightened or intermediate scrutiny rather than the rational basis test employed by the trial court) reversed, stating "the Act's limitation on damages does substantially further an important state interest -- the need
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