Thursday, November 02, 2017

Lichtman v. Siemens Industry (Cal. Ct. App. - Nov. 2, 2017)

"On the night of plaintiffs’ accident, there were no batteries in a traffic signal’s battery backup unit. During a power outage, plaintiffs’ vehicle entered the dark intersection and was struck by another car. Plaintiffs sued the entity responsible for maintaining the battery backup system, alleging its negligence proximately caused their injuries."

I didn't know that traffic lights had backup batteries, but upon reflection, yeah, that makes sense -- it's why/how they blink when the power's out.  And, yeah, if there's someone in charge of maintaining the battery backup system, and they leave out the batteries, I can see how that might well give rise to tort liability.

The trial court granted summary judgment to the defendant, holding that there was no duty.  The Court of Appeal reverses.

Which was my intuition as well.