Cyclist Wins $13 Million in Lawsuit With DWP : Courts: Jury awards money to a Granada Hills woman severely injured when she hit a downed power pole.

By ALAN ABRAHAMSON

Jan. 28, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

VAN NUYS — A Granada Hills woman who was severely brain-damaged when her bicycle struck a downed power pole has won a $13-million Superior Court judgment against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, believed to be the largest verdict ever awarded against the DWP.

A San Fernando Superior Court jury determined the award Thursday after finding the department was negligent for failing to remove the pole from a northern San Fernando Valley road.

Bicyclist Cindy Kim, now 31, was out for a morning ride five years ago when she hit the pole, tumbled into the air and landed on her head--receiving brain damage that left her with the mental ability of a 2-year-old.

The judgment--of which the DWP will actually have to pay only $10 million--is also apparently the largest in the history of the San Fernando courthouse, which is known in legal circles for its jurors’ reluctance to hand out multimillion-dollar awards.

The $13-million award should send city officials a message, said Kim’s attorney, Woodland Hills lawyer Lawrence P. Grassini.

“As I said to the jury, this is a bunch of people who had disdain for the public,” Grassini said Friday. “If anyone had cared, this accident would never have happened.”

Eskel Solomon, the deputy city attorney who represented the DWP during the trial before Judge William MacLaughlin, responded: “The city listens to the juries and we’re going to go back and review our systems. Because, ultimately, we’ve got 12 people saying that was not proper.”

He said of city employees: “There are a lot of hard-working people here. Things do happen wrong. That is not an admission of fault here, but that is what the jury believed.”

The accident occurred Aug. 4, 1989, on a bicycle path along Balboa Boulevard, north of Rinaldi Street but south of the Golden State Freeway. During the night, a motorist had hit a 35-foot-tall light pole, knocking it across the bike path and into the northbound lanes of Balboa Boulevard.

About 6:20 a.m., according to court papers, a woman in the neighborhood called the DWP, reporting the downed pole and accurately giving the location. The agency is responsible for clearing such obstructions out of the road, Grassini said.

The dispatcher sent a crew to check it out--but erroneously reported the location as Balboa Boulevard and San Fernando Road, court papers said.

The crew reported back that there was no light pole down at that location. According to a transcript of the call, the dispatcher--who has not been identified--then said: “I think somebody was monitoring a satellite transmission from Mars or something.”

The remark was “unprofessional, and that is going to be dealt with,” Solomon said Friday.

Kim, out for a ride on her 10-speed bicycle, hit the pole about 8:30 a.m., more than two hours after it had been reported. The impact severely injured her brain and she was in a coma for a month, Grassini said.

Kim was not wearing a helmet, but Grassini said her injuries would have been just as severe if she had been wearing one.

Before the accident, Kim was a saleswoman and had been attending Cal State Northridge, majoring in physical education, Grassini said. Now, after two operations to remove the 40% of her brain that died, she cannot brush her teeth, comb her hair, groom her nails or feed herself, according to court papers.

Jurors awarded Kim a little over $10.6 million in lost earnings and medical damages, and another $2.4 million for pain and suffering.

However, the DWP’s actual liability is less than the total because of the complicated laws of comparative negligence--and because $2 million will be paid by the company that insured the driver whose car actually knocked down the pole, Solomon said. The DWP’s share of the award is $10,028,702.

The DWP is considering whether to appeal, Solomon said.