BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The city of Palo Alto has been sued six times this year for alleged injuries on sidewalks, at bus stops and in parking lots — most recently from an RV dweller who fell at a city-owned shelter.
A bus passenger, a cyclist, two pedestrians and boy’s mother have also sued the city since Jan. 30 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Some of the lawsuits
• RV dweller Felix Renteria said he was walking to the showers at a parking lot for 22 RVs at 2000 Geng Road on May 20, 2025.
Renteria said he stepped on a loose board that suddenly lifted, and he fell forward onto stairs.
The city and Santa Clara County “failed to take reasonable precautions to protect pedestrians, who were expected to use the walkway and stairway in accessing the shelter facilities,” Renteria said in his lawsuit, filed on May 4.
Renteria said the city and county rejected his claims. He didn’t get into specifics about his injuries but is seeking at least $35,000.
• Redwood City radiation therapist Staci Martin said a concrete landing pad at a bus stop near Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital was only big enough for riders using the front door. She allegedly hurt her ankle stepping into a muddy area outside of the back door on Feb. 6, 2025.
Martin needed surgery and could no longer do chores, care for her children or have sex with her husband, her suit said.
Martin and her husband are suing the city, the bus driver and the operator of Stanford’s Marguerite shuttle.
• Resident Sunita Devi Lal said she got out of her car at Ramona Street and University Avenue on June 21. Her foot hit a section of raised concrete on the sidewalk, and she fell to the ground, her suit said.
• Tech worker Ferhat Hatay of El Cerrito was riding his bike near El Camino Real and Hansen Way on Aug. 1 when his front tire lodged in a gap in a storm drain grate, throwing him off his bike “with significant force,” his suit said.
Hatay is also suing Caltrans, the state agency that owns El Camino Real.
• Fernando Navarro said he tripped on an unmarked speed bump in the Palo Alto Unified School District’s parking lot at 25 Churchill Ave. He allegedly fell on March 17, 2025, and sued a year later.
• The mother of Henry Odette sued the city after Odetee’s hand was allegedly caught in a carousel at the Magical Bridge Playground at Mitchell Park on March 24, 2025.
“The entrapment was so severe that emergency responders, including fire department personnel, had to use forcible methods including hatchets to pry the carousel components to free (Odette’s) hand,” the lawsuit said.
City spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor declined to comment on the lawsuit.
$85,000 settlement
Palo Alto City Council agreed last Monday to pay $85,000 to settle a lawsuit from resident Anne Kramer.
Kramer said she tripped over a raised section of sidewalk on Mariposa Avenue in the Southgate neighborhood on Aug. 15, 2024.
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