The Sacramento team including Senior Associate Karen Wagner and Partner Karen Baytosh successfully defended a summary judgment on appeal before California’s Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District upholding a trial court’s ruling in a premises liability gun shooting suit.
The trial court ruled that property owners had no duty to a trespasser shot by a third party on the property because it was not reasonably foreseeable that the third party would take such action. The trial court granted the property owner’s motion for summary judgment because no triable issue of fact remained about the issue of the property owners’ knowledge of any violent propensities or any prior similar conduct of the third party.
The Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District ruled that it was not reasonably foreseeable that a trespasser looking at an airplane on the private property would be hit by pellets fired by someone on the property. The appellate court also concluded there was no duty to post “no trespassing” signs on the end of the property where the shooting occurred. The Court of Appeal reasoned that there was no evidence that anyone had previously attempted to apprehend anyone on the property, with or without a firearm.
The team who secured the affirmance of defense summary judgment included Karen Baytosh, Partner of the Sacramento and Reno offices, and Senior Associate Karen Wagner. Ms. Baytosh’s practice focuses on California and Nevada state and federal court complex civil litigation and appeals. In her career, Ms. Wagner, a former California Supreme Court extern, has successfully represented government agencies, businesses, and individuals before the California Supreme Court, several California Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.