Haytasingh

I.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Michael Ramesh Haytasingh and Crystal Dawn Haytasingh, appeal from a judgment entered in favor of defendants, City of San Diego (City) and Ashley Marino, a City lifeguard, after a jury trial. The plaintiffs sued the defendants after an incident that occurred at Mission Beach in San

Diego in August 2013, while Michael Haytasingh1 was surfing and defendant Marino was operating a City-owned personal watercraft. Although the parties offered different versions of what occurred that day, the plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that Marino was operating her personal watercraft parallel to Haytasingh, inside the surf line, when she made an abrupt left turn in front of him. In order to avoid an imminent collision with Marino, Haytasingh dove off of his surfboard and struck his head on the ocean floor. Haytasingh suffered serious injuries, including a neck fracture. The plaintiffs alleged that Marino was negligent in her operation of the personal watercraft. Prior to trial, the trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary adjudication of the plaintiffs’ negligence cause of action. The court determined that Government Code section 831.7 (section…