Cervantes
Cervantes v. Los Angeles County Metro. Trans. Auth. CA2/5
Opinion
Opinion
I. BACKGROUND
A. The Accident On June 8, 2017, Cervantes boarded an MTA bus and walked toward an open seat. Before she got there, the bus driver, Darryl Bowman (Bowman), accelerated away from the bus stop. Cervantes fell and was injured. The incident was captured on video. Cervantes filed suit against MTA alleging its employee Bowman had acted negligently and its negligence caused her injuries. MTA answered the complaint with a general denial and asserted a series of affirmative defenses, including an assertion that Cervantes’s own negligence caused or contributed to her injury.
B. Motions in Limine 1. Motion in limine to exclude ARB evidence Prior to trial, MTA filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence of post-accident investigations and evaluations
2 conducted by MTA. Though the appellate record does not reveal all the details of the post-accident investigation and evaluation process, it appears MTA convened a first-level ARB comprised of three MTA supervisory personnel who reviewed the accident and determined whether it was avoidable or not. Two of the three members of the first-level ARB, Shakana Turner (Turner) and Christopher Doan (Doan), concluded the…