Davis to pay $18 million to woman who slipped, fell on damaged sidewalk
The city of Davis has agreed to pay $18.3 million to end a lawsuit brought by a resident who fell and injured herself due to a damaged city sidewalk, in what appears to be one of the largest such settlements in U.S. history.
The settlement, first reported by the Davis Enterprise, stems from an August 2022 incident where the resident tripped over a portion of sidewalk that had been forced up by a tree root and obscured by overgrown plants.
In all, the settlement totals $18.5 million. The contractor responsible for sidewalk landscaping, Brightview Landscaping, will pay $200,000. The city of Davis will be responsible for the remaining $18.3 million.
The plaintiff, who requested that her name be withheld to protect her privacy, was a woman in her 60s who had existing mobility issues and did not see the protruding sidewalk. The fall caused “severe neck and head injuries,” according to the claim filed against the city.
The maintenance and management of the city sidewalk “was done negligently, inadequately, and improperly, thereby creating a hazard, trap, and dangerous condition,” the complaint said.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Michael Schaps, said he identified dozens of similar sidewalk problems in the city — evidence he said strengthened his case and highlighted that the problem of hazardous sidewalks is a longstanding, unaddressed one in Davis.
Evidence that similar problems were a regular occurrence may have convinced the city’s insurance provider that settling the case before trial would be less expensive than contesting the case in front of a jury, Schaps said, adding: “If we had had a trial it could’ve been $30 million.”
The fall exacerbated the plaintiff’s existing medical condition and required surgery. It took years for her to regain some mobility, but she remains partially paralyzed, according to the attorney. Schaps and his co-counsel estimated that the mishap caused their client $10 million in economic damage and led to about $8 million in associated medical costs.
Davis is a member of the Yolo County Public Agency Risk Management Insurance Authority (YCPARMIA), a municipal risk management pool that allows public entities in the county to mitigate potential financial risks. That means the city will cover a portion of the cost of the settlement and YCPARMIA will be responsible for the rest. It’s not yet clear how the settlement will impact the finances of Davis or YCPARMIA.
The settlement “was administered exclusively by the Yolo County Public Agency Risk Management Insurance Authority (YCPARMIA), the city’s insurance provider,” Davis city officials said in a statement. “The city was not involved in the litigation or settlement proceedings.”
Brightview Landscaping could not be reached for comment.
The city and contractor disagreed about their respective roles in reporting damaged sidewalks. But because the damaged pavement was obscured by plants that Brightview was responsible for maintaining, the contractor held some liability.
Schaps and his co-counsel, Glenn Guenard, argued that the city failed to properly maintain the sidewalk before the incident. Because Davis never enforced what they saw as Brightview’s obligation to report damaged sidewalks, their position that the contractor was liable would have been difficult to defend in court, Schaps said.
Because the contractor never made a single report about damaged sidewalks, the city “constructively knew” that their sidewalks were not being maintained and “people could trip, fall and get badly hurt,” he said.
As Schaps investigated the city’s process for repairing damaged sidewalks, he said he learned that the city does not instruct staff to report damaged sidewalks. “The city’s own employees don’t have training on this,” he said. “Not even the tree crew”
“The city should be more proactive,” Schaps said. “Instead of waiting for a report to come in or an accident to happen.”
Schaps believes the pretrial settlement may be the largest for a slip and fall case in history. He thinks the decision to settle was made in response to the strength of his case and a recent wrongful death lawsuit where a jury ordered Davis to pay $24 million after a tree branch fell and crushed a woman in a city park.
That a jury would impose such a large fee on a municipal plaintiff is unusual, Schaps said.
“It showed the city of Davis has really messed up,” he said.
The size of the settlement may compel the city to change its “reactive” strategy for repairing sidewalks to a more “proactive” one that better protects residents in the future, Schaps added.
“This was a black swan event for the city,” he said.
This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM.
