Mead

The above-captioned plaintiffs appeal from an order dismissing their action, against the defendants State of California and its Department of Motor Vehicles (Department), for damages arising out of the death of their nine-year-old daughter. The action was dismissed following the superior court’s order sustaining, without leave to amend, those defendants’ general demurrer to the causes of action affecting them.

Plaintiffs’ complaint alleged, among other things, the following.

Defendant Mead, while driving an automobile under the influence of alcohol and drugs, struck and killed plaintiffs’ daughter while she was within an intersection’s painted crosswalk. “[T]hat prior to and after licensing Mead the [Department] maintained a file on or record concerning Mead which contains information showing Mead was, at the time of licensing and thereafter, an alcoholic, a drug addict, a chronic user of both alcohol and drugs; a mentally disordered person ... subject to violent outbursts and lapses of consciousness; a user of prescribed medication for the regulation of his mental disorder;... a person unfit to drive upon the roads,... and a person who had had his license suspended or…