Paralift, Inc. v. Superior Court

Paralift, Inc. (Paralift) is a defendant in a wrongful death action filed by Danielle Davida Levin by and through her guardian ad litem Lisa Smalley, Stanley Levin, Estelle Levin and James T. Rinn, representative of the estate of Alan David Levin. Paralift seeks a writ of mandate directing the trial court to grant its motion for summary judgment on either of two theories: A release executed by the decedent, Alan David Levin (decedent), constitutes a complete bar to any recovery by his heirs; or, in the alternative, the trial court should have found applicable in this factual context of skydiving the doctrine of primary assumption of the risk as explained in Knight v. Jewett (1992) 3 Cal.4th 296 [ 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 2 , 834 P.2d 696 ] and Ford v. Gouin (1992) 3 Cal.4th 339 [ 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 30 , 834 P.2d 724 ].

We agree with Paralift that no triable issues of material fact exist with respect to the scope and legal effect of decedent’s release of liability and that, by reason of this release, Paralift has no liability to plaintiffs as a matter of law. Accordingly, without reaching the issue of primary assumption of the risk in this factual context, we grant the…