Injured On A Marked Construction Route At A Public Harbor

Attorney Answer

Being routed along a marked path is the strongest fact you have — the point of a designated route is that someone took responsibility for it being safe to walk. The complication is that a construction site usually has more than one party responsible, and they do not share the same deadline.

Start with who. A public harbor is normally controlled by a public entity — a county, a district, or a city. A contractor doing the work is not. That distinction sets the calendar. 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: a written claim, delivered to the entity, before any lawsuit, as Cal. Gov't Code § 945.4 separately requires. A claim against a private contractor is not subject to that rule and instead runs on Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, which allows two years for an action for injury caused by another's wrongful act or neglect. Six months against one, two years against the other, on the same fall.

Work to the six months. If it turns out the contractor is the responsible party, you have lost nothing by having presented a claim to the entity as well; if you work to two years and the entity was responsible, the claim is gone.

On responsibility itself, Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) provides that everyone is responsible for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person. That is the rule for the contractor who laid the temporary walkway and for whoever inspected it. A claim against a public entity for an injury caused by the condition of its property also carries its own statutory elements, including that the entity knew or should have known of the danger with time to correct it. Buckled temporary boarding on a route the public was directed onto is close to the center of both.

Expect the argument that you should have seen it. In California that is a discount, not a defense. Applying § 1714(a), 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.

As for what is recoverable, Cal. Civ. Code § 3333 sets the measure: the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused, whether it could have been anticipated or not. The stitches, the arms and the knees all count, and so does anything that turns out to be longer lasting.

What you can do

1. Go back and photograph the route now — the buckled board, the barriers, the signage directing pedestrians, and any contractor name or permit posted on the fencing. Record the date.

2. Write down the contractor's name and any permit number from those postings. That is what identifies the second potential defendant.

3. Ask the harbor's administration office for its claim form and present a written claim. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) gives six months from accrual and there is no fee.

4. Ask the entity in writing to preserve incident reports, the pedestrian routing plan, inspection records and any security video from that date, and ask for prior complaints about the same walkway.

5. Get seen about the arms if lifting still hurts, keep every medical record and bill, and keep the discharge paperwork from the stitches.

6. Ask a local attorney which entity controls that harbor and how to claim against the entity and the contractor at the same time.

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) governs any claim against the public entity: six months from accrual to present it. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 gives two years against a private contractor. Which applies depends on who was responsible for the walkway, which is exactly what is not yet known — so treat the six months as the deadline and have a local attorney check the dates now.