In Goddard v. Department of Fish and Wildlife, published December 23, 2015, the Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed summary judgment in favor of the defendant department in a wrongful death action alleging dangerous condition of public property. The decedent drowned in the Tuolumne river, downstream from the remnant of a dam. The dam was owned by the City of Modesto. In the 1970s, the department made a mid-channel breach in the dam to allow fish passage at low flows. It also installed a fish ladder, which later washed away. The plaintiffs alleged that the breach in the dam caused a strong current over the dam remnant that swept up the decedent, causing him to drown. The trial court granted the department summary judgment on the ground that it neither owned nor controlled the dam or its remnant.
The appellate court affirmed summary judgment on an alternative ground that the parties had briefed before the trial court: Government Code section 831.2's immunity from public entity liability for injuries caused by natural conditions of unimproved public property, including any natural condition of any lake, stream, bay, river, or breach. Case law establishes that the immunity applies even if a nearby man-made improvement affects a natural condition. Here, the injury was caused by the current created by the dam remnant. The current was a natural phenomenon that could be created by not only a dam remnant but also by natural objects such as rocks or trees. Since the remnant merely duplicated a model common to nature, it was a natural condition as a matter of law. Section 831.2 therefore immunized the department.
The appellate court also affirmed the trial court's ruling that, at the time of the injury, the department neither owned nor controlled the property that caused the injury. The city, not the department, owned the dam. Although the state owned the riverbed, the department was not the state agency that has jurisdiction over the riverbed. Nor did the department have control over the dam at the time of the accident. That the department breached the dam and installed a fish ladder in the past did not establish control; by statute, the department did not have jurisdiction over the ladder once installed. Control at the time of the accident is required for liability, so the fact that the department could install the ladder in the past did not establish control.
Comments