$24 million awarded to family of woman killed by falling tree at Davis park in 2021

Michael McGough, The Sacramento BeeSacramento Bee

The city of Davis will pay more than $24 million in damages to the family of a woman who died when a tree fell on her at a city park.

Jennifer Comey, described in a city news release as a wife and mother, died after being struck by a falling tree limb at Slide Hill Park in February 2021. She was 44.

A civil trial in Yolo Superior Court concluded Friday with a jury awarding $24.2 million to Comey’s survivors, according to the city news release.

Comey’s widower, Theodore Pitts, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in January 2022 against the city and Davey Resource Group, a company with which the city contracted for tree management. The suit had also listed a Sacramento-based arborist company as a defendant, but that company was dropped before Friday’s judgment.

The city, according to the news release, “accepted responsibility for the failure of the tree that resulted in Jennifer Comey’s death and at the trial solely asked the jury to assign reasonable damages in the case.”

The city said Friday the $24.2 million judgment will be paid using the city’s municipal risk pool. Davis is a member of the Yolo County Public Agency Risk Management Insurance Authority.

Authorities have not said what caused the tree limb to fall. The accident happened on a day that the National Weather Service advised gusty winds would blow through the Sacramento Valley, potentially knocking down trees and branches, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time. Many trees were also already weakened by intense atmospheric river storms that struck Northern California in January 2021, the weather service said.

City says it has improved tree care practices

Davis officials wrote that the city since 2021 has implemented improvements to the city’s tree care and urban forestry practices. As part of these actions, the city moved its urban forestry division under the umbrella of the Public Works Utilities and Operations Department in 2021, which the city said has provided additional tree maintenance resources.

The Davis City Council in 2022 and 2023 expanded the staff size of the urban forestry division. In 2023, it approved funding for a second contracted tree crew to focus on “large service requests/removals,” Friday’s news release said. This allows the first contract crew to prune trees that pose a hazard.

Over the past two summers, the urban forestry division implemented a pilot program to “proactively assess and prune trees in areas where City recreation and summer camps” take place, according to Friday’s news release.

The city is also in the process of reducing the frequency of tree pruning from seven years to three years citywide.

Davis officials also noted they will continue to share safety tips during stormy weather and high wind advisories.

The Yolo County Public Agency Risk Management Insurance Authority, which is the risk pooling entity through which Davis will pay the judgment, includes Yolo County and the cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Winters and Woodland. It also includes Esparto Unified School District, Yolo Superior Court and more than two dozen other, smaller public agencies within the county.