Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara Partner Jack Briscoe, Senior Associate Dean Solomon, and Associate Arnel Jalbuena recently achieved major victories on two cases following the filing of two separate motions for summary judgment.
In the first case, plaintiff, a minor, was a frequent horseback rider at an equestrian facility in Los Angeles. Plaintiff alleged that while she was taking a horseback riding lesson, BWB&O’s client, a ten-year-old child at the time of the incident, chased, whipped and abused her own pony in an adjacent riding arena, which caused plaintiff’s horse to spook and throw plaintiff off. After several rounds of written discovery, depositions of parties and witnesses, and motions for summary judgment brought by other defendants, the BWB&O Woodland Hills team brought a motion for summary judgment on behalf of our minor client, arguing that the primary assumption of the risk doctrine precluded plaintiff’s action. Following an hour of oral argument, the court ultimately agreed that plaintiff had primarily assumed the risk inherent in the sport of horseback riding and that plaintiff could not establish that the BWB&O client did anything to increase the risk inherent in the sport and granted BWB&O’s motion for summary judgment.
In the other case, plaintiff, a nanny, brought a child to BWB&O’s clients’ home for a music class lesson during which time the plaintiff slipped and fell, allegedly on water on the floor of the BWB&O’s clients’ home. Again, the BWB&O Woodland Hills team brought a motion for summary judgment arguing that the state of the evidence demonstrated that there was no dispute of material fact as to whether a dangerous condition existed on the floor at the time of the incident. Specifically, plaintiff was unable to prove that there was, in fact, water on the floor at the time of the incident and that even if there was water on the floor which caused plaintiff to slip and fall, there was insufficient evidence that it constituted a dangerous condition, that BWB&O’s client created the dangerous condition and/or that the dangerous condition had existed long enough for BWB&O’s client to discover and remedy it. Upon receipt of BWB&O’s moving papers, plaintiff agreed to dismiss her case with prejudice.
Please join us in congratulating Jack Briscoe, Dean Solomon, and Arnel Jalbuena on these victories!
Original source can be found here.