Calling Malibu’s motion “frivolous,” the plaintiffs in a consolidated wrongful death lawsuit in the death of a ride-hailing driver, in a collision allegedly caused by a social media influencer, say the beachside community should remain a defendant in the case.
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 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. Therefore, the city should be removed as a party, according to Malibu’s attorneys.
But in their court papers filed with Swift on Friday, the plaintiffs’ attorneys reject the city’s arguments.
“Defendant city of Malibu’s motion to dismiss based on the plaintiffs’ alleged failure to prosecute their case is frivolous and should be denied,” the family’s lawyers state.
The city is ignoring the months that were required to first relate the cases, then move for consolidation and finally to obtain an order appointing a guardian ad litem for the plaintiff who is age 11, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ pleadings.
In their court papers, the Malibu attorneys stated that the city is not difficult to serve since it is a full public agency.
“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 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 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Malibu/Lost Hills 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.