INGLEWOOD – Two adult children of a woman who died several months after suffering severe injuries in a 2018 fall in the parking lot of an Inglewood Green Line Station have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Delores Thomas was left paralyzed from the March 17, 2018 tumble and died June 8 of that year, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court complaint filed in March 2019 by Andrea and Adrian Elam.
On Tuesday, a Metro attorney informed Torrance Superior Court Judge William Willett that the case was resolved, but no terms were revealed. The judge vacated the scheduled March 3 trial.
According to the complaint, Thomas was walking on a sidewalk in the parking lot on Crenshaw Boulevard when the poorly lit walkway suddenly ended and became “an unmarked, unexpected and dangerous ditch.” Pedestrians are forced to cross the dirt area to reach where the sidewalk continues, according to the suit.
Thomas did not see the step down into the dirt area, stumbled and fell forward onto her head at about 7:45 p.m., the complaint stated.
Metro asserted a “design immunity” defense, which under the state Government Code provides that a public entity is not liable for injury caused by the plan or design of a construction or improvement to public property where the plan or design was approved in advance of the construction or improvement by the legislative body or the employee with authority to give such consent.
Thomas was paralyzed and subsequently entered a vegetative state, dying three months later, according to the suit.
