Minor daughter witnesses mother's death at local park. $24.2M. Yolo County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  Mid-morning on February 23, 2021, Jennifer Comey said goodbye to her husband Ted Pitts and left their home in Davis with their three-year-old daughter to go to nearby Slide Hill Park where their daughter liked to play. 

  Minor daughter settled in to play in the park’s sandbox located directly adjacent to playground equipment while Jennifer stood by watching.  The playground and sandbox were surrounded by several large Shamel Ash trees. Suddenly, a large 40-50’ long branch broke off the ash tree directly above Jennifer, falling and crushing her beneath it, directly in front of her minor daughter. 

  Minutes later, a park employee and two good Samaritans responded to the location, seeing the child by herself and not realizing Jennifer was underneath the large limb now covering the sandbox. Upon realizing Jennifer was there, they called 911 and first responders arrived shortly thereafter.  After removing Jennifer from underneath the large limb, she was transported to UC Davis medical center where she died from her injuries less than two hours after the incident. 

  Prior to the incident, in 2018, defendant Davey Resource Group was hired by defendant City of Davis to perform an inventory of all of the City’s trees. The contract called for the inventory to be performed by certified arborists. On July 23, 2018, the subject tree was inspected by a Davey Resource Group arborist, who had not yet taken his certification exam, which he did in December 2018.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  That the City of Davis negligently failed to inspect or maintain the subject tree or any of the trees in the City’s parks. 

• Defendant's Contentions:

  City of Davis – ultimately admitted liability the week before trial. The City admitted that it failed to inspect and maintain the subject tree. However, that defendant Davey Resource Group negligently performed its inventory and should have warned the City of Davis that the subject tree was in need of a higher level of pruning as part of its inventory work.

  Davey Resource Group – asserted that it performed the work it was contracted to perform. The inventory did not include doing any sort of individual risk assessments of trees. It was merely to log species, height, general condition, etc. The type of tree assessment included in this type of inventory only includes 3-5 minutes of time spent at each tree. If the City wanted a more thorough risk assessment of particular trees – like its park trees, that is a separate service, which the City’s arborists and urban foresters are well aware that they could have contracted for. Additionally, the City did not follow any of DRG’s maintenance recommendations in the inventory, so there was no causation between the inventory and the incident.   

  As a result of the City’s claims against Davey Resource Group, the plaintiff and Davey were able to enter into evidence facts supporting the failure of the City to do its job.