Zeppi

Robert and Gloria Zeppi, the plaintiffs, were injured in a collision with an automobile driven by Leo Kroger. Kroger was killed in the accident. Plaintiffs filed suit seeking damages from Kroger’s estate, also naming as defendants Osear E. Beach and Charles R. Waugh, maintenance superintendent and maintenance foreman, respectively, in the employ of the State Division of Highways. In addition to alleging negligence on Kroger’s part, the complaint charged that the accident was the direct and proximate result of a dangerous highway condition for which Beach and Waugh were responsible. Recovery against the highway employees was premised on former Government Code section 1953, as it read in 1957, describing the conditions necessary to impose personal liability upon public officers for defective or dangerous conditions of public property.

The case went to trial before a jury. At the close of plaintiffs’ evidence, separate motions for a nonsuit were made on behalf of Kroger’s estate and on behalf of Beach and Waugh. The court denied the Kroger motion but granted the non-suit as to Beach and Waugh. The trial proceeded against Kroger’s estate and the jury returned a verdict in favor of…