## Facts

- Federico De Vera was a fare-paying passenger on a bus owned and operated by Long Beach Public Transportation Company (a common carrier).
- A third-party vehicle rear-ended the bus, and De Vera suffered personal injuries.
- De Vera alleged the bus company, through its employees, negligently failed to obtain and/or safeguard the identity of the third-party vehicle and driver.
- De Vera claimed the bus company had a duty to obtain and preserve this identifying information so he could pursue a civil claim against the third-party tortfeasor.
- De Vera alleged the bus company had the opportunity to obtain the information and knew or should have known he would rely on it to do so.
- De Vera claimed the loss of identifying information proximately deprived him of a claim against the third party and sought damages measured by what he would have recovered from that party.
- A jury awarded De Vera $17,500 against the bus company.
- The trial court also awarded attorney fees against De Vera under Code of Civil Procedure § 128.5 and later denied his motion for relief from that award under § 473.

## Issues

1. Whether a common carrier owes a duty to passengers to reasonably investigate an accident caused by a third party and preserve identifying information to facilitate the passenger’s claim against the third-party tortfeasor.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying relief under Code of Civil Procedure § 473 from an attorney-fee award imposed under § 128.5.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the $17,500 judgment for De Vera.
- The court held a common carrier owes passengers a duty to reasonably investigate third-party accidents and preserve the fruits of that investigation for use in the passenger’s later civil litigation against the third party.
- The Court of Appeal affirmed the order denying De Vera relief under § 473 from the § 128.5 attorney-fee award, finding no abuse of discretion.

## Legal Principles

- A common carrier’s special relationship with passengers can impose duties beyond safe transportation, including reasonable post-accident steps to protect passenger interests.
- When a third party causes an accident, the carrier must act reasonably to investigate and preserve identifying information relevant to the passenger’s foreseeable claim against the third-party tortfeasor.
- Negligent failure to obtain, retain, or provide such information can be a proximate cause of harm where it foreseeably impairs or defeats the passenger’s third-party claim.
- Damages may be based on the value of the impaired or lost third-party claim that would likely have been recovered absent the carrier’s negligence.
- Relief from a sanctions-based attorney-fee award under Code of Civil Procedure § 473 is discretionary and requires a sufficient showing of mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect; denial is reviewed for abuse of discretion.

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeal recognized that, due to the carrier-passenger relationship, a bus company must reasonably investigate a third-party collision and preserve identifying information needed for an injured passenger’s later claim against the third party, and it upheld both the passenger’s damages verdict and the denial of relief from a sanctions-related attorney-fee award.


De Vera v. Long Beach Pub. Transp. Co., 180 Cal. App. 3d 782, 225 Cal. Rptr. 789 (Ct. App. 1986)