Stoned Skater Can Sue County

A teenager stoned on marijuana enters a public park after closing, rides his skateboard down a driveway on a moonless night and crashes into a locked gate.

And then he sues Santa Cruz [CA] County for his injuries because he didn't see the gate coming.

Seventeen-year old Angelo Seaver's blame-the-government strategy didn't go far with a trial judge, but it did win over a three-judge appellate panel.

On Friday, [California's] 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled that because Seaver was riding his skateboard for transportation, not to perform stunts, he was not engaged in a "hazardous recreational activity."

And the panel found that because there were no signs, reflectors or lighting to help Seaver see the gate, the county created a "dangerous condition of public property."

Because he was riding for transportation rather than sport, the "primary assumption of the risk doctrine" did not apply to bar his claims as a matter of law, the Court held.

The quotation above is from a May 3 article in the San Francisco Daily Journal by Peter Blumberg, but it is not available online. Instead, you can read the Court's unpublished opinion here.

Comments

[Phillip Parte']

I spent the first 7 years of my life in Lake Geneva Wis where my childhood buddy was Tom Seaver, Angelo's father. I kept in touch w/ Tom my entire years of life even though we lived at times continents apart. He was a good man, from a good family and Tom raised a good kid until he passed at an early age from a brain tumor-- Ironic as Angelo now suffers from brain damage thanks to the inept construction of a skate park which was most likely built against the wishes of the county as young skaters have to beg for the privi to skate. So... We got a county that finally did something for the kids! Good. Sound the sirens! But failed to put the extra few bucks into safty concerns--- I can hear the voices of a few of the county commisioners as they have drinks behind closed doors: "F_ _ _ the reflectors and lights! We put enough of our fu_ _ _ _ _ _ money into this already." Another commissioner in a stooped state might have said; "Yea, the little bastards are lucky to get what they got and it ain't worth the few votes it's gonna bring and I say they got enough. No more extras!" True or false?Help out the cause for open skating and for the rights of all skaters and tell us; "Is this the truth or not the truth?". I don't think there was ever a skate park built that wan't a public issue to where the kids and skate supporters had to fight for the right to skate. More elderly folks fall down every day using walkers. Should we ban their wheels?