Williams v. State of California CA4/3

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The first amended complaint alleges plaintiffs A.W., then 13 years old, and A.E., then 2 years old, were seriously burned in a fire ring located at the beach, controlled and supervised by defendant. Plaintiffs plead there were hot coals hidden under sand in the fire ring. According to the declaration of Joseph Milligan, defendant‟s beach superintendant, filed in support of defendant‟s motion for summary judgment, the concrete fire rings at the beach, which are about 60 inches wide, contain four-and-a-half inches tall red lettering on the outside, stating “Caution Hot Ashes” (capitalization omitted). In her deposition, Williams, the mother of A.W., who was with her at the beach, testified she did not see the warnings on the fire pit in question because sand was pushed up around the edges of the ring. She also stated she saw no warnings on any of the approximately two dozen pits in the vicinity.

2 After spending several hours at the beach, Williams, who had her back to the fire ring, heard A.E. scream and saw him inside the ring. She then saw A.W. jump into the ring and then jump out, screaming that her foot was burned. Williams and another person…