Off Beat: Team Sutter triumphs
Chalk up another big legal victory for Team Sutter, thanks to the state appeals court in Sacramento.
The case, which was decided last month, was a tragic one that began on June 1, 2009, with a fatal traffic accident on Garden Highway just south of O'Banion Road.
Sharon Guthrie, 68, died when her car hit a tree and a steel post.
Her husband of 44 years, Joel, is a local attorney. He thought he might have a case against the county.
But in order to start the process, he had to file a claim with the county but missed the six-month deadline.
On Jan. 27, 2010, he filed a request with the county to file a late claim. The county, of course, rejected it, forcing Guthrie to go to court to win his right to file the claim.
He lost in Superior Court. So he appealed.
The 12-page appellate opinion noted that Guthrie explained he missed the filing deadline because he "was not able to function as I formerly did. I was depressed, unfocused, and disorganized."
Guthrie, the opinion said, "spoke with two other attorneys, who advised Guthrie he might have a claim against the county arising from a dangerous condition of property. Within days of that conversation, Guthrie sought to file a late claim."
Guthrie, the appeals decision said, submitted a declaration from a friend, former Superior Court Judge Terence Keeley, who said Guthrie "suffered from emotional trauma caused by his wife's sudden death and evidenced signs of depression. He was irritable and restless, had difficulty concentrating, difficulty in making decisions, was not able to pay attention to or remember details, was unorganized, was pessimistic at times, lost interest in activities he once enjoyed, and clearly was not himself."
The Sutter County judge who heard Guthrie's request to file the late claim, Brian Aronson, ruled against him in September 2010.
The appeals court said Aronson found that Guthrie "failed to establish that his depression and trauma following his wife's death prevented him from taking any step toward presenting a wrongful death claim within the statutory six-month period, and thus failed to satisfy his burden of showing excusable neglect."
The appeals court, in rejecting Guthrie's bid to get the OK to file the late claim, said "the fact that (he) was depressed, disorganized or had difficulty making decisions following his wife's accident did not preclude his continuing to work in his own career as an attorney; presumably, that work brought him into contact with other attorneys with whom he could have consulted had he wished to do so."
