Nusbaum

FACTS

Central Valley owned and operated a 10-acre property located near Highway 59 in Merced County (the Property). The Property was primarily a trucking yard and ready- mix concrete plant, not open to the general public. Signage posted at the Property’s entrance warned that all visitors had to check in at the Property’s office, had to announce themselves and who they were with, and had to be accompanied if Central Valley allowed them anywhere on the Property. On Monday, November 17, 2014, Luke Nusbaum, the Nusbaums’ 22-year-old son, walked onto the Property wearing socks and no shoes, using a gait one employee described as a train walk—that is, “[l]ike when you’re a kid and you act like you’re a train.” Luke was training to become a Buddhist monk, and when he entered the Property he was practicing “kinhin” — walking meditation in a place with loud noises. Luke had not been invited onto the Property by anyone at Central Valley.

1 Subsequent undesignated statutory references are to the Civil Code.

2. After entering the Property, Luke walked in the direction of supervisor Jose Sandoval who had just gotten out of a truck. As their paths intersected and they were about five…