Optician Receives $5.7 Million Settlement
Contra Costa County, Property Owner and Driver Agree to Pay for Injuries Sustained in Motor Vehicle Accident Involving a Partially Obscured Stop Sign
San Francisco, June 7, 2005 – Today, a total settlement of $5,788,400 was finalized and awarded to Sandra Dianne Perley, a 44-year-old optician and East Bay resident, who was severely injured in a 2001 auto accident that occurred when she was broadsided by another driver who failed to stop at a posted stop sign that was partially obscured by oleander bushes. The stop sign was owned and maintained by the County of Contra Costa (Calif.), and the oleander bushes were owned by and on the property of Gene A. Arata.
Perley was represented in the case [Sandra Dianne Perley v. Jerry Samuel Berkowitz et al., Contra Costa County Superior Court Case No. C 02-02857 (consolidated with Case No. C 02-02624)] by Cynthia McGuinn, Miles Cooper and Anthony Label of The Veen Firm.
"This is a tragic case that could easily have been prevented had the County and property owner performed basic maintenance on the stop sign and vegetation at this intersection," said Cynthia McGuinn, Perley's attorney and a senior trial lawyer at The Veen Firm. "Local governments and private property owners need to remember that they share a duty to the public to maintain their vegetation and signage to avoid creating dangerous conditions on adjacent roadways. Hopefully this resolution will serve as a reminder and reinforcement of that duty."
In Nov. 2001, Perley was driving northbound on Walnut Blvd., approaching the intersection with Concord Ave. in an unincorporated area of the County of Contra Costa. At the same time, the defendant was driving eastbound on Concord Ave., approaching its intersection with Walnut Blvd. The defendant failed to see the posted stop sign and drove through the intersection, hitting Perley's car and propelling it across and off the road and into a nearby fruit stand. Although she was wearing her seat belt, Perley was partially ejected from the car. Her longtime companion, a German shepherd named Shadow, was killed in the collision.
Due to the accident, Perley sustained permanently disabling orthopedic injuries and a traumatic frontal lobe brain injury with additional damage to her right parietal and temporal lobes. As a result of the injuries, Perley is unable to return to work as an optician.
Plaintiff's counsel alleged that the accident was caused by a combination of factors, including vehicle operator negligence and dangerous conditions of public and private property. The attorneys prosecuted damage claims against the vehicle operator, the County of Contra Costa, which owned and maintained the stop sign and the intersection, and the owner of the property on which the vegetation was located. The driver was negligent due to his failure to stop at the stop sign and for traveling at unsafe speed for the conditions. The County's negligence stemmed from its decision to move the stop sign closer to the vegetation and failure to adequately evaluate the visibility of the stop sign once moved. The property owner's negligence was a result of an unsafe condition on or adjacent to his property.
Perley ultimately recovered a total of $5,788,400 in separate settlements with each of the three defendants. The largest contribution, or $4,125,000, came from the County of Contra Costa.
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