Jury Awards $1.59 Million After KSBY Manager Killed Crossing Shell Beach Road Outside The Cliffs Resort
After trial: The jury set total damages at $6.7 million but put 36 percent of the fault on the wife herself, and the driver and the city, who both settled before trial, held most of the rest. Under California's Proposition 51, The Cliffs and its parent owe their share of the pain damages and the economic damages less her share, about $1.59 million.
A San Luis Obispo County jury awarded $6,709,300 to the family of Tricia Rittger, a KSBY sales manager who was struck and killed by an SUV while crossing Shell Beach Road to reach The Cliffs Resort, after the firm proved the resort had violated its own parking policy and a city-issued operating permit.
What happened
On November 19, 2011, Tricia Rittger, 39, of Los Osos drove to The Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach for an evening out with friends. The resort's west parking lot was full, so she was directed to the east lot across Shell Beach Road. There was no marked crosswalk at that location. While crossing the road, she was struck by an SUV and suffered fatal injuries. She died at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, leaving behind her husband Aaron and a four-year-old daughter.
Aaron Rittger filed a civil lawsuit against The Cliffs Resort, its owner John King, the City of Pismo Beach, and the driver of the SUV. The central claim was that The Cliffs had violated its conditional use permit, which required the east lot to be reserved exclusively for employees, and that the resort's failure to enforce that restriction placed guests in the position of having to cross a busy road with no pedestrian protection.
The City of Pismo Beach settled before trial for $1.5 million, without admitting liability. The case against The Cliffs and its owner proceeded to a two-week jury trial beginning July 31, 2014, in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court before Judge Barry LaBarbera. Plaintiff's counsel argued that management knew the cross-street parking arrangement was dangerous and that a simple policy correction or a crosswalk could have prevented the death.
The jury set the family's total damages at $6,709,300 for Aaron Rittger and his daughter, then apportioned fault among the parties, assigning 10 percent to The Cliffs Resort and 36 percent to Tricia Rittger, with the rest on the driver and the city, who had both settled before trial. Under California's Proposition 51, each defendant pays only its own share of the pain damages but all of the economic damages, so The Cliffs and its parent owed $500,000 of the $5 million in pain damages and about $1.09 million of the $1.7 million in economic damages once Tricia Rittger's own share of the fault came off.
The family had initially sought roughly $22 million covering funeral costs, lost income, court costs, and general damages, based in part on Rittger's salary of more than $70,000 a year as the household's primary earner. The $6,709,300 figure was the jury's finding of the total value of the family's loss before that fault was apportioned.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.NBC News: 'Rittger family awarded $6.7 million in civil trial against The Cliffs Resort'·Archived copy
- 2.Lompoc Record: 'Jury awards $6 million in civil case against The Cliffs'·Archived copy
- 3.Santa Maria Times: 'Jury awards $6 million in civil case against The Cliffs'·Archived copy
- 4.CalCoastNews: 'Family seeking $22 million for KSBY manager's death' (local news article, pre-trial coverage, 2014)·Archived copy
- 5.Santa Ynez Valley News: 'Wrongful death lawsuit against The Cliffs underway'·Archived copy
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