Coates v. Newhall Land & Farming, Inc.

Opinion

LUI, J.—

Summary

Charles Coates (Coates) was fatally injured while riding a dirtbike in a park owned and operated by respondents. His heirs sued for wrongful death, alleging that respondents had negligently designed and maintained the trail on which Coates had been riding, causing Coates’s death. The trial court granted respondents’ motion for summary judgment, based on a contract Coates had signed before he was injured.

We conclude that a decedent’s preinjury contractual assumption of risk eliminates the possibility of tortious conduct by a potential defendant, and thus precludes a…