A slip-and-fall case against the City of Monterey goes all the way to trial, a cautionary tale.

Sara Rubin here, on my way to the gym after work. I’m sure at some point I signed a waiver, but admittedly I don’t remember it or what it said. That’s how it is with most waivers; we only read the fine print if disaster strikes and there are questions about a legal remedy. The language and prevalence of these waivers fades into background noise most of the time. 

The same is true of slip-and-fall lawsuits. Our team at the Weekly routinely reviews what’s going on in the Monterey County Superior Court system, and there are so many suits filed over turned ankles, bruised knees and the like, against cities and grocery stores and other businesses, that they generate just a shrug. 

That’s why we didn’t cover a lawsuit filed on March 22, 2023 by Richard Rosendale against the City of Monterey. The allegations went like so: In February 2022, Rosendale attended a spin class at the Monterey Sports Center, in a studio that had been recently cleaned. Rosendale slipped and fell, landing on his left shoulder and tearing his rotator cuff, requiring surgery.

That’s a major bummer, for sure, but it seemed unremarkable. What was more remarkable was that the case went all the way to a six-day jury trial, concluding last week on Aug. 27. The jury found the city was not at fault. 

“We told him, we are not going to back down on this one,” says Monterey Assistant City Attorney Karin Krattli. 

That’s for a few reasons. One is that the city’s legal team has an obligation to be thoughtful about simply paying out taxpayer funds, Krattli says. Add to that that unlike, say, a public sidewalk, the Sports Center requires visitors to pay admission and sign a waiver, raising the bar for a plaintiff to prove gross negligence. 

The city is facing a tough budgetary time, and Krattli says it would not only be a questionable expenditure of taxpayer funds—Rosendale was seeking $750,000—but that it would pose a real problem for the Sports Center’s balance. “It's irresponsible to pay out taxpayers' money in a situation like this,” she says. “It would seriously jeopardize the Sports Center operations.”

Going to trial costs time and money, of course. But Krattli also hopes it’s a saver long term as a preventive message. “People have a perception that government has deep pockets and a tendency to pay out on whatever claims they get,” she says. “We want to say: as the City of Monterey, no we're not going to do that.”

The last time a similar claim went all the way to trial was 2017 when a former MPUSD superintendent, Marilyn Shepherd, sued over a 2014 fall in a pothole, seeking $750,000. She, too, lost. Krattli hopes the Rosendale case keeps spurious claims at bay for another decade or so, reminding people that injuries on public property aren’t just easy cash—it’s hard-earned taxpayer money.