$2 Million to Victim of Drunk Driver Upheld Against Laguna Beach

A passenger in a speeding car driven by a drunk driver may collect $2 million from Laguna Beach for injuries sustained after a single-vehicle accident, an appellate court ruled Tuesday.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana affirmed the 1985 jury verdict, based on claims that Laguna Beach failed to properly maintain the road.

The case of Nathan Blue, who was rendered a paraplegic after the 1979 accident, was controversial. City officials provided summaries of the case last year to groups supporting Proposition 51, the “deep-pockets” initiative that voters overwhelmingly approved.

Blue, now 37 and confined to a wheelchair, is “very, very happy” with the decision, according to his attorney, Thomas V. Girardi.

Blue’s friend, David Browne, the driver, had no insurance. He was convicted of drunk driving in the incident.

Although the jury found Browne 65% responsible, the verdict left city taxpayers and their insurers responsible for the entire award. Proposition 51 probably would have limited Laguna Beach’s financial liability to its proportion of fault, or 35%, according to city officials.

The city was insured at the time of the accident under a $100,000-deductible policy, City Manager Ken Frank said.

“We can’t lose any more money, but philosophically, we strongly disagree with the court,” Frank said.

“He was driving 55 in a 25-m.p.h. zone, he was clearly legally drunk, he ran off the side of the road,” Frank said, “and we’re out $2 million.”

Both men were employed in a cabinet shop on Nov. 8, 1979. They left work together, split a pitcher of beer at a restaurant and bought a six-pack to go.

Denied He Was Drunk

Browne acknowledged that he was speeding down Cypress Drive at Aster Street but denied he was drunk. Blue testified that he was not drunk, but declined to talk about his friend. Police found four empty and wet beer bottles in Browne’s Volkswagen after the accident.

Blue’s attorney, Girardi, alleged that the street was littered with holes and dips. He argued that 85% of all motorists on Cypress exceeded the 25-m.p.h. speed limit, making the uncontrolled intersection extremely dangerous.

“(Laguna Beach’s) own data showed that the accident history of the street made it the worst in the city,” Girardi said. “Their own traffic engineer testified that a stop sign should have been erected there.”

Proposition 51 would have had little effect, Girardi said, because Blue’s physical injuries, his lost occupation as a carpenter and his medical expenses would have accounted for most of the damages.

Proposition 51 was designed to apply only to non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, he said.

The appellate court, in an opinion by Justice Edward J. Wallin, rejected contentions by the city that Girardi had failed to prove the street was dangerous. The appellate court also found that the city failed to present sufficient evidence to show that Blue was careless in joining Browne, intoxicated at the time, in the car.

Laguna Beach is a member of the Orange County Risk Management Agency, 14 cities that jointly insure themselves. Before last December, the group would buy group policies jointly.

Under the self-insurance arrangement, Laguna Beach must pay $325,000 annually, and it has a deductible of$500,000.