The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
If a foreign sovereign entity is subject to suit under one of the exceptions to immunity otherwise conferred by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the Act does not affect the substantive law governing the entity's liability. Instead, 28 USC 1606 provides that when not entitled to immunity, "the foreign state shall be liable in the same manner and to the… Read More
Under Gov. Code 913(b), a government entity that denies a tort claim must give the claimant a notice saying you have only six months to file suit and suggesting that the claimant seek legal advice immediately. Here, the defendant agency's denial notice mentioned the six-month deadline but omitted the advice to seek legal advice. Due to that defect, the notice… Read More
The 2020 Executive Order N-35-20 provided for a 60-day extension of the time for presenting a claim under Gov. Code 911 et seq. The 60-day extension did not apply to the time for presenting an application to the governmental entity for leave to file a late claim under Gov. Code 911.4(a). Read More
A state or local agency's failure to protect may give rise to a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim under the state-created danger exception when the state affirmatively places the plaintiff in danger by acting with deliberate indifference to a known or obvious danger. Deliberate indifference is judged by a subjective standard. Here, defendant arguably displayed deliberate indifference in not keeping… Read More
A governmental entity is liable for a dangerous condition of its property only if it has actual or constructive notice of the condition and doesn't fix it. The entity has constructive notice of a dangerous condition only if (1) the dangerous condition existed for a sufficient period of time before the plaintiff’s injury, and (2) it was sufficiently obvious that… Read More
A government tort claim must be signed by the claimant (or someone acting on his or her behalf) and be sent by the claimant to the government entity. This decision holds that though plaintiff signed a government claim form at a chiropractor's office where she received treatment for injuries from the traffic accident that was the basis for the government… Read More
