 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Stevens v. 396 Investment Co.5/17/2005
in the back-cut failure and that they performed no leakage study with respect to the reservoir. He stated that, in preparing his plans, he would have wanted to know if the reservoir was leaking approximately 65 gallons per minute and he would have wanted to know where the water was going. However, Kapp had no recollection of anyone ever telling him, between 1977-1987, that the reservoir was leaking through its liner. Furthermore, he stated that no one from Anaheim ever told him about any leakage tests the city was doing with respect to the reservoir and no one ever told him of any leakage test results. The point being, neither GeoSoils, Inc. nor Anaheim ever mentioned any reservoir seepage issues to the civil engineer working on the project in 1981, and there is no citation to any portion of the record showing that anyone conveyed the 1981 information to either 396 or its predecessor in interest years later.
The long and the short of it is that, in support of the ruling, we imply a finding that 396 was ignorant of the true state of facts - that it was unaware of a 34 million gallon per year seepage. (Schubert v. Reynolds, supra, 95 Cal.App.4th at p. 104.) There is substantial evidence to support this finding. That being the case, the third requirement of the estoppel test is also met.
(vi) 396's Reliance
Now we turn to the final requirement - the reliance of the party asserting the estoppel. Anaheim maintains that this requirement is not satisfied. We disagree.
We imply a finding that 396 relied to its detriment on the lack of a warning as to the dangerous condition of the reservoir. (Schubert v. Reynolds, supra, 95 Cal.App.4th at p. 104.) Indeed, 396 says it never suspected that the reservoir could have been the cause of the landslide until late 1998, when it first learned of the possibility from its expert, Bogseth. Bogseth testified that, as far as he was aware, he was the first person to whom it occurred that the reservoir could be the source of the problem. He said the possibility first came to his mind in October or November 1998. 396 filed a claim with Anaheim shortly afterwards, in January 1999.
396 having filed a claim soon after its expert came to think the reservoir should be investigated, it is reasonable to assume that 396 would have filed a claim shortly after having received a warning from Anaheim that the reservoir was leaking 34 million gallons of water per year. Inasmuch as a public entity has a duty to warn of a dangerous condition, it would not ordinarily occur to someone that a public reservoir was leaking 34 million gallons of water per year and creating a groundwater problem, when the public entity owning the reservoir was sitting silently by and watching the telltale signs of the landslide develop, without providing any warning to the affected members of the public. In such a case, a party involved in a growing landslide situation would reasonably rely on the absence of a warning in conducting its landslide related affairs, such as investigating probable causes of the landslide and pursuing probable defendants, including a public entity reservoir owner as to whom the Tort Claims Act applies. The fourth requirement of the test, 396's reliance on the absence of a warning in omitting to file an earlier claim, is satisfied.
(vii) Conclusion
As the foregoing analysis shows, each requirement of the four- part test is met. Anaheim is estopped from asserting that 396 failed to timely file a claim and the court did not err in its ruling.
(2) Claims of Biazeviches, Marions, Robinson and Weis
(a) Introduction
Anaheim makes two assertions with respect to the claims of in
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 California Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|