Barnett

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs and appellants, Berthram Berry Nwene and Shelia Barnett, appeal from

the trial court’s granting of the motion for summary judgment of defendant and

respondent, City of Desert Hot Springs (the City).

The record on appeal can be characterized as “meager,” at best. From plaintiffs’

pleadings it would appear that plaintiffs’ daughter, age 13, was struck and killed by a hit-

and-run motorist as she was walking to school on the dirt shoulder of Palm Drive.

Plaintiffs’ complaint appears to focus on the basic contention that Palm Drive was

dangerous at the time of the accident, because there was no improved pedestrian sidewalk

running parallel to and adjacent to the northbound lanes of Palm Drive.

At the motion for summary judgment, the City submitted a traffic collision report,

a declaration by a sergeant of the City’s police department, authenticating 11 photographs

The law firm of Graves & King and Harvey W. Wimer III substituted into this case for the purpose of oral argument only.

2 From the evidence submitted on the City’s motion for summary judgment, it is unclear as to whether plaintiffs’ decedent was walking on the paved portion of the…