Caltrans Ordered to Pay $16.4 Million After Rotting Tree Branch Crushes 75-Year-Old Motorcyclist on SR-79

On the morning of August 19, 2020, Jane Neely was riding her Harley-Davidson northbound on SR-79 through the rural hills north of Warner Springs when a massive branch from an infected roadside tree snapped and fell directly onto the roadway, landing on top of her. The limb, weighing several thousand pounds, caused a burst fracture of her spine on impact. She also suffered a fractured femur, cervical fractures from C2 through C8, and a brain bleed. At 75, Neely was rendered a paraplegic and would require full-time care for the rest of her life.

The tree in question stood within Caltrans right-of-way along SR-79. Evidence showed the tree was diseased and structurally compromised before the branch gave way. Neely's legal team argued that Caltrans had sufficient opportunity to identify and remove the hazardous limb through routine inspection before it failed, and that the agency's failure to act constituted a dangerous condition of public property.

Caltrans initially invoked natural condition immunity, maintaining it had no notice that this particular tree would fail on this particular day. As the case moved toward trial, Caltrans offered $10 million against Neely's demand of $15 million, and negotiations broke off. Then, in the weeks before the initial trial date, Caltrans reversed course and stipulated to both liability and causation, a concession described by trial attorneys as rare in dangerous condition cases against a California government agency. The admission meant the jury would hear only damages.

Brett Schreiber of Singleton Schreiber tried the damages phase alongside co-counsel Ibiere Seck. The presentation covered Neely's catastrophic physical injuries, her reduced life expectancy of eight to eleven years at the time of the verdict, and the cost of the lifelong care she would require. On May 11, 2022, the jury returned a verdict of $16,420,725.

Caltrans subsequently acknowledged in its own court filings that for a substantial period before the branch fell, the Subject Tree was compromised and unstable. No appeal reducing the award has been reported.