Legal Memorandum: Zoning Laws as Evidence of Negligence

Issue: WHETHER A VIOLATION OF A ZONING ORDINANCE IS NEGLIGENCE PER SE UNDER CALIFORNIA LAW.

The case of Reyes v. Kosha, 65 Cal. App. 4th 451, 76 Cal. Rptr. 2d 457, review denied  (Oct. 14, 1998), controls.  In Reyes, the plaintiffs suffered terrible injuries resulting from a fire in a migrant worker camp.  The camp was in violation of an employee housing statute.  The plaintiffs argued that the violation of the act gave rise to negligence per se.  They argued further that whether the statutory violation directly caused the injuries under a simple negligence analysis was not relevant in the context of negligence per se claims.  The claims were dismissed by the trial court.              The appellate court agreed with the plaintiffs.  It rejected the contention that causation for purposes of negligence per se analysis was the same as causation in simple negligence cases.  After first determining that the statute applied, it then stated the law as to negligence per se.  Under the doctrine, negligence is presumed if "(1) the defendant violated a statute; (2) the violation proximately caused injury to the plaintiff; (3) the injury resulted from an occurrence which the statute was designed to prevent; and (4) the plaintiff was one of the class of persons for whose protection the statute was adopted."  Id., 65 Cal. App. 4th at 463,  76 Cal. Rptr. 2d at 462-63.  The court went on to explain:

[Whether] the injury involved resulted from an occurrence of the nature which the statute was designed to prevent and whether plaintiff was one of […]

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