DAVIS -- A month-long wrongful death trial in Davis not only ended last week with a $24.2 million judgment awarded to the family of a woman who died at a city park, but it also exposed the need for a change in protocol maintaining the trees in those parks.
Jennifer Comey and daughter Margaret, now 7 years old SOURCE: Pitts familyComey later died from her injuries at UC Davis Medical Center, leaving behind her loving husband, Ted Pitts, and daughter, Margaret.
"It's the worst example of people not doing their job," said Roger Dreyer, the attorney representing Comey's surviving family.
"On behalf of the City Council, we were deeply saddened by Jennifer Comey's untimely and tragic death.
Since 2021, when Jennifer Comey died, the City has taken a number of actions to address tree safety in the City of Davis and continues to improve its practices around City owned trees. The City currently owns 30,000 trees. We have adopted a proactive inspection and maintenance program for about 6,500 trees which are in high occupancy public areas like parks, play fields, and downtown plazas."
In a press release published immediately after Friday's verdict the city addressed what steps it has taken to reduce risk, including that the city council expanded the Urban Forestry Division and allocated additional staff and funding. "They should have been doing that decades ago," Dreyer argued.
Jennifer Comey and daughter Margaret Pitts SOURCE: Pitts familyThis included, Dreyer noted, counsel's multiple attempts to allude to the large amount of money as "generational wealth" to fund trips and potentially frivolous spending for Comey's surviving family and attempts to insinuate there could be a new romantic relationship eventually in her husband's life. Both insinuations were shut down by the judge.
At a massive $24.2 million in damages going to Comey's surviving husband and child, this is the largest wrongful death judgment handed down in Yolo County history. "Do you feel like this serves as an eye-opener to other city and local governments to not let something like this happen?" I asked.
Dreyer responded, "100%. The significance of the number hopefully reminds not only Davis but all municipalities [to] do your job." The money to cover that judgment will come from the city's municipal risk pool, which is essentially an insurance fund in case of a lawsuit like this.
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