A lawsuit filed against the Department of Water and Power by an 85-year-old woman who was seriously injured when an electrical line fell on her in 2023 while she was walking in the Fairfax district is headed to trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The plaintiffs are Ann Gelfand and her husband, 87-year-old Martin Gelfand. On Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynne M. Hobbs denied a motion by the city and DWP to dismiss the case, ruling instead that a jury will hear Ann Gelfand’s claim for dangerous condition of public property and her husband’s cause of action for loss of consortium.
Hobbs did dismiss the Ann Gelfand’s negligence claim.
“The court finds that there are triable issues of material fact as to whether the location was dangerous due to a combination of various factors: the first downed power line, the risk of other power lines going down after one goes down and the severe winds,” the judge wrote
In their court papers, the couple’s attorneys stated that Ann Gelfand sustained severe injuries that left her with “debilitating and lifelong deficits that will require future medical care.”
The suit was filed last June 7 and states that Ann Gelfand was walking near the corner of Kilkea Drive and Clinton Street on March 1, 2023, when an electrical power line fell from an overhead pole and was dragged by a passing car before it struck the woman and caused her to fall to the ground.
The woman suffered a “massive blow to the head” as well as a fractured knee and ankle that required surgery and her recovery is ongoing, her lawyers’ court papers state.
Ann Gelfand also continues to have blurry vision in her right eye, needs a home health nurse to assist her with wound care dressing and uses a wheelchair, according to her attorneys’ court papers.
Trial of the case is scheduled April 24.