A Los Angeles Superior court, Los Angeles, California, on Monday, March 16th, declared a mistrial in a case between Rosana Levine, Tia Jeri Hoberman, the city of Malibu, and Southern California Edison.
The mistrial is the second in the case stemming from a lawsuit filed by Levine, who was a victim of a motorcycle accident in 2015. Judge William McLaughlin gave the mistrial order after the temporary restriction order on juries because of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Twelve out of the required jurors have been picked, with only four left. Opening statements were supposed to be taken on Monday, but with the new development, Levine’s lawyers do not know when the trial would resume.
The case had earlier gotten a mistrial on February 19th after Levine fell in front of jurors during lunch hour. Hoberman’s lawyers and Edison’s attorney’s believed the act would impair the members of the jury, and they asked for the mistrial, which they got.
The accident Levine suffered occurred in Malibu. The woman, who was 54 at the time, was a passenger on a motorcycle driven by Frank Ross Samuels, which was hit by Hoberman, who failed to yield the right of way after making a left turn on Harbor Vista Drive onto Malibu Canyon Road.
The woman sued the driver for negligence and joined the city for wrongly designing the intersection and Edison for an improperly placed power pole that blocked Hoberman’s vision.
Levine suffered injuries to her leg and ankles and had multiple surgeries to fix them. She wants the court to grant damages that will cover her medical bills and other loss suffered, while Samuels, on the other hand, already received a settlement.
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