In Tindall v. County of Nevada, ordered published June 18, 2025, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed summary judgment for the defendant county. The plaintiff slipped on a layer of ices as she walked to her car in the parking lot of the county jail where she worked. She sued the county for maintaining a dangerous condition of public property. The trial court granted the county summary judgment based on Government Code section 831, the weather immunity defense. Section 831 provides in part that "“Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for an injury caused by the effect on the use of streets and highways of weather conditions as such." The trial court concluded that the parking lot was a "street" or "highway."
The appellate court agreed. The court rejected the plaintiff's argument that section 831 is an exception to liability, and so should be strictly construed. Under the Government Claims Act, immunity is the general rule, and liability for dangerous conditions of public property is the exception. The court further ruled that when construing the Government Claims Act, courts properly may consider the interplay of Government Code immunity provisions with definitions found in other codes. Vehicle Code section 590 defines "street" as “way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.” Government Code section 65002 also broadly defines "street." Based on Vehicle Code section 590's broad definition of "street," a parking lot open for public use and owned and maintained by a public entity is a "street" within the meaning of section 831. A parking lot is both a place for parking, and a path of travel from one place to another (by vehicle and by foot). Because it was undisputed that the patch of ice was an effect of weather conditions, the county was entitled to liability. The court ruled that other liability arguments that the plaintiff raised for the first time in her summary judgment opposition (without first amending her complaint) or in oral argument of the motion were forfeited.