The city of Malibu is seeking to be dismissed as a defendant from a consolidated lawsuit filed in connection with the Independence Day 2024 death of a ride-hailing driver in a collision allegedly caused by a social media influencer.
Summer Wheaton, 33, goes by the Instagram handle “yepitsmesummer.” She was arrested in February 2025. The first Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit by relatives was filed in 2024 and targeted Wheaton, Nobu Malibu and other entities, but did not name the city of Malibu as a party. Two subsequent lawsuits did name the city and a judge consolidated the three cases last October.
But according to court papers filed by the city on May 22 with Judge David W. Swift in advance of an Oct. 16 hearing, the municipality was not served with the lawsuit and summons until April 22, well after the claim was rejected on Jan. 2 and 10 months after the city was first named as a party.
“Plaintiffs will not be able to show good cause as to why they failed to serve the defendant city in a timely fashion,” the city’s lawyers state in their court papers. “As such, the city should be dismissed from this case for plaintiffs’ delay in prosecution.”
The city is not difficult to serve since it is a full public agency, Malibu’s lawyers further contend in their court papers.
“It would be ludicrous for any party to claim that perhaps the city had moved, changed its address or hidden information since the day of the incident that would make service of process on the city difficult,” the Malibu attorneys argue in their pleadings. “In fact, the public agencies are likely the easiest parties to locate and serve, and plaintiffs knew that since they successfully filed government tort claims against the city.”
Wheaton’s arrest followed a months-long investigation into the fatal crash on July 4, 2024, which occurred on Pacific Coast Highway, west of Carbon Canyon and about a mile from Nobu Malibu.
Investigators said Wheaton was driving eastbound in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz when she crossed the median and collided head-on with a 2020 Cadillac driven by the 44-year-old victim, who died at the scene.
Sheriff’s officials said Wheaton surrendered the following Monday at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, where she was booked on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing bodily injury and driving with a BAC of 0.08% or higher causing bodily injury.
Wheaton had allegedly attended the “Red, White & Bootsy” event at Nobu Malibu. The suit states that although the city had revoked the restaurant’s permit to stage the event, the eatery held it anyway and the city did not interfere.
The city maintains Nobu Malibu ignored the permit revocation and that Pacific Coast Highway is under the state’s jurisdiction.