$750,000 Jury Verdict After Falling Tree Branch Fractures Pedestrian's Spine on Diamond Bar Sidewalk

On July 24, 2018, Lulin Yan was walking along Montefino Avenue in Diamond Bar when a limb roughly eight inches in diameter broke free from a Bradford pear tree overhanging the public sidewalk. Several branches came down on him at once. He was taken to the hospital, where he stayed three days with a compression fracture to his spine.

Yan sued the City of Diamond Bar under California Government Code section 835, which imposes liability on public entities for injuries caused by a dangerous condition of public property. The case turned on whether the city knew, or should have known, that the tree posed a threat to people using the sidewalk below it.

At trial in March 2024, BD&J attorney Martin Kanarek presented evidence of nine prior branch-fall incidents involving Bradford pear trees in the same vicinity over the five years before the accident. A neighbor testified about prior complaints made to the city. The defense challenged the admissibility of that prior-incident evidence, arguing the other trees were not the same tree and the circumstances were not sufficiently similar.

The jury rejected the city's position. It found that Diamond Bar had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition and had failed to take adequate protective measures. The jury awarded $250,000 for past noneconomic losses and $500,000 for future noneconomic losses, totaling $750,000.

The City of Diamond Bar appealed. In a published opinion issued March 11, 2026, the California Court of Appeal, Second District, affirmed the judgment in full. The appellate court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the prior branch-fall evidence and the neighbor's testimony about complaints. No reduction in the award was ordered.