This is what happens when a city does not spend $250 to fix a pothole. Now it cost the people of Long Beach $500,000 and they still have to pay the $250 to fix a pothole. Why do we trust government?
“Laupua’s lawyers found Google Street View photos that showed the pothole existed at the location since at least March 2015.
On two occasions between March 2015 and August 2017, city maintenance staff placed yellow and red paint markings adjacent to the pothole.
“Obviously someone should have reported this pothole and didn’t do so,” Nguyen said.
The City Attorney’s Office decided to settle this case because “settlement avoids the uncertainty and costs associated with trial,” Principal Deputy City Attorney Howard Russell said in an email.
In August, a jury awarded nearly $17.5 million in damages to a Long Beach woman who stepped in a pothole outside a Zaferia neighborhood supermarket in May 2020. In that case, the woman developed a rare, incurable pain condition.
No wonder Long Beach has a massive homeless problem—they can’t even fix a pothole until someone is seriously hurt. Wonder if anyone was fired for this incompetence? Doubt it.
Long Beach will pay $500K settlement to woman who fractured ankle in pothole
by Jacob Sisneros, Long Beach Post, 11/27/24 https://lbpost.com/news/city/long-beach-will-pay-500k-settlement-to-woman-who-fractured-ankle-in-pothole?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_campaign=Today%20s%20Headlines%2011/27/24
The Long Beach City Council recently approved paying a $500,000 settlement to a Long Beach woman who needed surgery to repair a fractured ankle she suffered when she stepped in a pothole near Heartwell Park.
A mediator proposed the settlement amount, which both sides agreed to in early October. The City Council gave it final approval during a closed session meeting on Nov. 19.
“Frankly [the settlement amount] is less than what we wanted and I’m sure more than the city was willing to pay in mediation,” said Minh Nguyen of Nguyen Lawyers, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers. “It really forced both sides to dig deep and look hard at the case and make some compromises.”
The payout stems from an incident around noon on March 22, 2021, when 43-year-old Noel Laupua was walking to her parked car on Bellflower Boulevard about 100 feet north of Carson Street. That’s where she stepped from the sidewalk into the street and her foot caught in a roughly 10-inch wide, 3-inch deep pothole, according to the complaint for damages filed by Laupua’s lawyers.
The pothole that injured Noel Laupua on Bellflower Boulevard. Courtesy of Minh Nguyen.
The pothole caused her foot to twist and she fell to the ground landing on her left elbow to brace her fall, her lawyers wrote.
Laupua’s lawyers found Google Street View photos that showed the pothole existed at the location since at least March 2015.
On two occasions between March 2015 and August 2017, city maintenance staff placed yellow and red paint markings adjacent to the pothole.
“Obviously someone should have reported this pothole and didn’t do so,” Nguyen said.
The City Attorney’s Office decided to settle this case because “settlement avoids the uncertainty and costs associated with trial,” Principal Deputy City Attorney Howard Russell said in an email.
In August, a jury awarded nearly $17.5 million in damages to a Long Beach woman who stepped in a pothole outside a Zaferia neighborhood supermarket in May 2020. In that case, the woman developed a rare, incurable pain condition.
Russell did not specify if the August case had any bearing on the decision to settle this time.
The city considers other cases when determining settlement amounts, but overall the decision is “case-specific,” Russell said.
Nguyen, a Long Beach resident who graduated from Long Beach Poly High School, said he wasn’t surprised the city decided to settle the case.
In the past, Nguyen said, the city has taken lawsuits to trial and lost big sums. The potential exposure for the Laupua case could have been “in the multiple seven figures,” he said.
“We’re grateful for the City Attorney’s work and the City Council’s approval of the settlement so that way Ms. Laupua can close this ugly chapter of her life, focus on her health and her family going forward,” Nguyen said.
The city wasn’t immediately able to say how much money it has paid out in pothole-related lawsuits over the past five years. The city this year has redoubled its efforts to fill potholes after a wet rainy season opened up tens of thousands of them across Long Beach.
Personal injury cases related to potholes aren’t all that common in the City Attorney’s Office, Russell said.
“Most pothole claims are brought by motorists alleging property damage,” Russell said.
