Do I Have A Case After Falling On A Lifted Sidewalk

Attorney Answer

Possibly — but be told two things straight away. A small lift in a sidewalk is one of the harder claims to bring in California, and if the city is responsible you have six months to present a claim, not two years.

Take the deadline first, because it is the one that can end the matter without anyone deciding anything. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) requires a claim for death or for injury to a person or to personal property against a public entity to be presented not later than six months after the cause of action accrues. It is a written claim, delivered to the entity, and under Cal. Gov't Code § 945.4 it comes before any lawsuit. You fell yesterday, so you have the full window and, just as valuable, the evidence is still on the ground.

Then who. Cal. Sts. & High. Code § 5610 requires owners of lots fronting on a public street to maintain the sidewalk so that it will not endanger persons or property. That sentence misleads a lot of people: the duty it creates runs to the city, and under California's sidewalk cases an abutting owner generally is not answerable to an injured pedestrian merely because the walk in front of the property was defective — unless the owner created the hazard. The exception is local. In Jordan v. City of Sacramento, 148 Cal. App. 4th 1487 (2007), the Court of Appeal addressed a city ordinance that shifted civil liability for defective sidewalks onto the abutting owner and held the shift effective, with the city entitled to indemnity if it were held liable. So whether the property owner is on the hook where you fell depends on your city's ordinance. Claim against the city, and identify the owner while you do it.

Now the hard part. Your own words are that the concrete is lifted "a little bit." California courts do not treat every irregularity in a walkway as actionable; how big the difference is, how well lit it was, whether anything obscured it, and whether there had been complaints before are what separate a claim from a bruise. That is why measuring and photographing the lift today matters more than anything else you can do.

And being partly at fault does not end a claim here. Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) makes everyone responsible for an injury occasioned to another by a want of ordinary care in the management of his or her property, and applying that section the Supreme Court in Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978), described a pure comparative system in which a plaintiff's recovery is reduced only to the extent his own lack of reasonable care contributed to his injury.

What you can do

1. Go back today and photograph the lift, with a ruler or a coin laid against it so the height is visible, plus wide shots showing the lighting, the nearest address, and anything that hid it.

2. See a doctor about the ankle and the wrist now, and say you fell on a raised sidewalk. Swelling that appears the same day and is never examined becomes an argument later.

3. Photograph the injuries, and keep the clothing and shoes you were wearing.

4. Ask the city for its claim form and present a written claim. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) gives six months from accrual, and presenting it costs nothing.

5. Request from the city, in writing, any prior complaints, service requests, inspection records or repair orders for that stretch of sidewalk.

6. Ask a local attorney whether your city has an ordinance of the kind described in Jordan, and who owns the abutting property.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) is the deadline to work to: six months from accrual to present a claim to the public entity. A claim against a private abutting owner would run instead on Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1's two years. Which applies turns on who is responsible, which is the open question — so treat the six months as yours and have a local attorney check the dates now.