Briggs v. State of California

In Briggs v. State of California (1971) 14 Cal. App. 3d 489, the state was held liable even though the dangerous condition arose because mud from neighboring private property slid down a slope and onto the highway. A question arose as to whether the state had actual or constructive notice of the instability of the adjacent property in sufficient time to anticipate a mudslide and take measures to protect the traveling public. The court held repeated slippage had put the state on constructive notice of the dangerous condition and that the state had not taken adequate measures to warn motorists of the potential hazard. ( Briggs v. State of California, supra, 14 Cal. App. 3d at pp. 497-498.) The Briggs court quoted with approval a Law Revision Commission comment to Government Code section 830: 3 " ' "A public entity may be liable only for dangerous conditions of its own property. But its own property . . . may be considered dangerous if a condition on the adjacent property exposes those using the public property to a substantial risk of injury." ' " ( Briggs v. State of California, supra, 14 Cal. App. 3d at p. 499) The court in Briggs held the State of California liable for damages for wrongful death, in connection with a traffic accident on a public highway. Liability was based on Government Code section 835, which provides: 2 "Except as provided by statute, a public entity is liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if the plaintiff establishes that the property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury, that the injury was proximately caused by the dangerous condition, that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury which was incurred, and either: (a) A negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of the public entity within the scope of his employment created the dangerous condition; or (b) The public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition under Section 835.2 a sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition."