Costa Mesa to pay $117,500 to settle trip-and-fall lawsuit

Costa Mesa will pay $117,500 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who was injured after tripping over the remnants of a lamppost.

The City Council voted unanimously in closed session Tuesday to approve the settlement with Stephanie De La Cruz, City Attorney Tom Duarte said.

According to the complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court in 2016, De La Cruz was injured in 2014 when she tripped and fell over the remains of a lamppost that had been removed from a sidewalk on East 19th Street near Fullerton Avenue.

The lawsuit alleges the city allowed remnants of PVC pipes, loops of electrical wiring and large anchor bolts to protrude through the sidewalk after it removed the damaged lamppost months earlier.

The complaint claims the city failed to warn pedestrians of “a dangerous condition, or to make any effort to remedy the dangerous condition, which they knew or should have known of its propensity to cause serious injury.”

“[De La Cruz] did trip over this dangerous condition and was very seriously injured as a result,” the lawsuit states.

De La Cruz was unable to work for a time after the fall and incurred costs for medication, X-rays and other medical supplies and services, according to the lawsuit.

Staff writer Luke Money contributed to this report.

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