Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Camper May Sue Government For Fall Off A 30-Foot Cliff

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A Sonoma County man who fell off a 30-foot cliff at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campground may sue the government for failing to put up warning signs, the Ninth Circuit ruled.

The court reversed dismissal of Ricardo Navarette's claim. He fell from a path that led from his campsite to the cliff to the rocks below and suffered a permanent brain injury in 1997. Navarette claimed the staff at Liberty Glen Campground near Lake Sonoma knew about the dangerous path but failed to warn campers. One ranger's reacted to the accident by saying, "Oh my God! We can absolutely see how it happened," the ruling states. The circuit rejected the argument that the government had discretion to determine whether the cliff was dangerous. Drop-offs had to be properly marked and "there is no dispute here that the 30-foot drop from the path to the rocks below was in fact a drop-off," Judge Fisher wrote. See ruling in

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...