Tough break, kid

An eight-year old boy and his guardians are suing the City of San Diego for neglect of a city park after the boy, during a visit to the Mission Bay RV Resort in De Anza Cove, fell through a dilapidated and unanchored utility box after jumping on top of it while playing.

The boy fractured his femur and has had to undergo two surgeries to correct the break.

Days after the accident, attorneys for the boy's family contacted the mobile-home park's manager, Newport Pacific Capital, to pursue a claim against the company for failing to secure the utility box. The company responded weeks later, saying it was the responsibility of the owner — the City of San Diego — not theirs.

Attorneys soon filed a claim to the city’s Risk Management Department but the deadline to submit a claim had already expired. The city rejected the claim. The family's attorney says filing before the deadline would never have been an issue if it was known that the RV resort was on city-owned parkland. According to the February 2 complaint, there are no signs on the property disclosing that it was city land, nor was there any information on the resort's website.

"Resort has deceptively hidden the fact that it is a City-owned park. No reasonable person would know, or even suspect, that a government entity owned the Resort….

"[The boy] had no reason to believe that a government entity owned the property on which he sustained his injuries, and no reason to believe that a government tort claim would be necessary to recover his damages. No reasonable person would have known that government claim filing requirements applied to an injury sustained at the Resort until the Resort’s September 22, 2014 correspondence notifying Counsel that the Resort was a City-owned park. The City failed to properly disclose its ownership of the Resort, thereby causing [the boy] to be completely unaware of the City’s negligence until September 22, 2014."

The city's rejection of the claim has forced attorneys to take the matter to court, to ask that a judge order the city to accept a late claim. If not, the matter will be subject to litigation. According to the claim, the family is asking that the city pay the boy's medical expenses as well as compensate him for pain and suffering as well as attorney's fees. The amount is estimated to exceed $20,000.