LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A tort claim seeking damages in excess of $10 million has been filed with the county of Lake by the family of a woman killed in a crash involving a sheriff's deputy last October.
Santa Rosa attorney Jeremy Fietz filed the claim with the county, which received it on Jan. 8, on behalf of Gloria Garcia Gamino and Jose Daniel Rivas Cruz, parents of Gabriela Rivas Garcia.
In the claim document, Fietz noted that the scope of the financial losses to the family aren't yet known and ultimately are up to a jury to determine.
He said that it's his clients' belief that the damages they've suffered exceed $10 million.
On Oct. 3 the 26-year-old Garcia was killed in a head-on collision with Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Lewis on Highway 29 half a mile north of Diener Drive.
Just after 6:20 a.m. that day Garcia was driving from her home in Clearlake to work at a local vineyard in the Kelseyville area.
Lewis was heading to Lower Lake to join the pursuit of alleged home invasion suspects when, according to the initial California Highway Patrol report, his 2009 Chevy Tahoe patrol vehicle crossed into the northbound lane – and directly into the path of Garcia's 1995 Honda Civic.
Garcia died at the scene. Lewis sustained serious injuries and had to be flown to an out-of-county trauma center.
The CHP's Clear Lake Area office requested the assistance of the CHP Northern Division's Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT, which is conducting a joint investigation into the crash along with the Lake County District Attorney's Office.
MAIT goes through a lengthy process of collision reconstruction that takes months. CHP officials and District Attorney Don Anderson told Lake County News that they don't expect the report to come out until sometime in March.
Garcia had come from Mexico to the United States, where she had made her home and had been working for several years.
“She was supporting her parents in Mexico and sending money home every month and obviously they don’t have that any more. They don’t have their daughter,” said Fietz, adding that Garcia's parents were dependent on her.
Because Garcia had no children or spouse, her parents are filing the suit, Fietz said. California's wrongful death statute allows for such filings, and also permits people who are not United States citizens to bring suit.
The Board of Supervisors discussed the tort claim in closed session on Tuesday, according to the board agenda.
County Counsel Anita Grant said the tort claim is being handled by the George Hills Co., the county's third party liability administrator.
The administrator has up to 45 days to deny the claim, after which Garcia's family has a six-month window to file a civil lawsuit, Grant said.
She said the lawsuit that's expected to be filed will not be handled by her office. Instead the county's liability insurance coverage will hire a legal firm to deal with the case.
Fietz said he's already been contacted by the George Hills Co. and informed that it will deny the claim. “That's to be expected,” he said.
He said he is confident that Lewis – who he said was driving between 80 and 120 miles per hour – was at fault in the crash.
“It seems pretty obvious that the deputy crossed over the center line and hit our client head-on,” said Fietz.
He also questioned the use of an SUV, which Lewis was driving because he's very tall. Fietz suggested it was not the best pursuit vehicle on Lake County's winding roads.
Fietz said he doesn't plan on waiting for the MAIT report to come out before filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, which he expects will neither admit nor deny liability in the case.
He said the lawsuit won't include a total of damages sought. “The general rule in California is that you do not ask for a specific amount,” he said, adding that it's up to the jury to decide the damages.
Rather, the suit will demand an amount to compensate Garcia's parents for their loss, Fietz said.
Fietz has experience in wrongful death cases like that involving Garcia's family.
Last year, he won a record-setting $10.6 million verdict in Sonoma County in a suit filed by the family of Santa Rosa resident Maria Juana Flores, who was killed in a crash on Highway 116 in February 2009.
While most of that amount wasn't paid because the driver responsible was dismissed from the case, Caltrans was ordered to pay Flores' family $3 million due to dangerous road conditions at the intersection where the crash occurred, according to media reports.
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