The relatives of a man killed when a transient threw an incendiary device into his parked car have abandoned their lawsuit against the City of Long Beach just days before a court was scheduled to consider the City’s motion to dismiss the action, according to Long Beach City Attorney Charles Parkin.
On April 14, 2013, while sitting in his car parked in front of a 7-Eleven store at 5109 Pacific Coast Highway, Jerry Payne was burned to death after Raymond Sean Clark, a panhandler, walked over to the car and threw in an incendiary device. Clark’s motives for the senseless attack are not known.
Payne’s brothers and sisters filed a lawsuit against the 7-Eleven where the incident occurred and against the City of Long Beach, claiming that the City failed to provide adequate police protection and guard against Clark’s violent propensities, and “the dangerous propensities of the local transients/vagrants/panhandlers…”
The Long Beach City Attorney’s Office immediately filed a motion to dismiss the action, technically called a demurrer, arguing that under well settled California law, the City cannot be legally responsible for random acts of violence occurring within the city, according to Parkin. As the motion hearing date approached, the attorney representing the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss the suit against the City. The case will proceed, however, against 7-Eleven.
Source: LB City Attorney’s office
