Winig

Plaintiffs Henry Winig and Robert Desruisseaux appeal from summary judgments in favor of the State of California (the State) in an action for damages for personal injuries caused by a dangerous condition of public property. The alleged dangerous condition is an inadequately protected 18-inch deep excavation running parallel to and about 5 feet from the fast lane of a freeway.

The summary judgments are predicated on Government Code section 830.6 , which immunizes the state from liability “for an injury caused by the plan or design of a construction of, or an improvement to, public property” if the plan or design is properly approved. (Italics added.) The trial court read the section as extending to the plan “for” construction of an improvement to public property, encompassing the means of its construction. As appears, the trial court has misread the statute. It applies to the plan or design “of’ the improvement and not the means of its construction.

We will reverse the judgments.

Facts and Procedural Background

A brief account of the accident suffices. Shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 26, 1990, plaintiffs Winig and Desruisseaux were passengers in a pickup truck…