A quiet evening in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood transformed in a single, devastating second into a legal firestorm. A 70-year-old local resident has filed a massive $35 million claim against the city of San Diego after a sidewalk stumble left him with a broken neck, a broken back, and a lifetime requirement for around-the-clock medical assistance.
While a multi-million-dollar demand over a sidewalk trip might sound extraordinary on paper, the underlying security footage and a history of municipal maintenance issues paint a much more troubling picture of civic negligence.
The Anatomy of a Fall
The evening of May 11 began ordinarily enough. The unidentified 70-year-old man and his wife were walking back to their vehicle after enjoying dinner at a local sushi restaurant. Because of pre-existing mobility challenges, the man was utilizing a walking aid to navigate the pavement.
What he couldn’t see in the dimming light was a metal remnant of city infrastructure hiding in plain sight.
Surveillance footage captured by a nearby veterinary clinic revealed the exact moment disaster struck. As the man approached his vehicle, his foot caught heavily on the exposed metal base of a removed parking meter. The impact sent him stumbling forward helplessly, crashing facefirst into his parked car before hitting the ground.
According to his attorney, William M. Berman, the parking meter itself had been uninstalled by the city the previous year. However, crews failed to grind down or remove the anchor plate, leaving a jagged metal trap jutting out of the concrete.
“They protrude about an inch to two inches from the sidewalk,” Berman stated to news outlets. “The city needs to make sure they’re taking out these bases from the sidewalks.”
A Systemic Budget Crisis?
In the $35 million claim filed against San Diego, Berman argues that the city willfully allowed its public walkways to degrade into a “dangerous condition.” But the legal team is taking the accusation a step further, alleging that this wasn’t an isolated oversight, but rather the result of a systemic failure in city management.
Berman alleges that the city effectively ran out of money to properly fund its parking meter maintenance program. Instead of cleanly extracting the units and patching the concrete, the cash-strapped program allegedly abandoned the metal stubs in place, leaving hidden trip hazards scattered across multiple San Diego neighborhoods.
Through this lawsuit, Berman emphasizes that his client’s primary objective—beyond securing compensation for his catastrophic injuries—is to force a sweeping overhaul of how San Diego maintains its infrastructure.
“My client wants the city to maintain its public sidewalks in a safe condition,” Berman told CBS 8 San Diego. “My client wants to make sure that the city’s responsible in its maintenance program.”
Neighbors Sound the Alarm
For the residents who navigate the Mission Hills area daily, the news of the elderly man’s life-altering injuries was tragic, but entirely unsurprising.
Local resident Laura Landisi noted that the area’s sidewalks are already a minefield for the vulnerable, heavily warped by aggressive tree roots. For her husband, Robert, who relies on a walker to get around, the uneven terrain requires constant, exhausting vigilance.
“Especially because my husband uses a walker, and the sidewalks are not even because of the tree roots,” Laura shared with NBC San Diego.
Robert echoed the sentiment, highlighting how easily a simple walk can turn dangerous when navigating neglected city property. “If you’re not paying attention, you run your wheel right into it,” he said. “Fortunately, I have yet to fall.”
When pressed for a response regarding the $35 million claim, the hazardous meter bases, and the allegations of a depleted maintenance budget, a spokesperson for the City of San Diego declined to provide specifics, offering only a standard legal shield: “The City cannot comment on individual claims or potential litigation.”
As the legal battle begins, a grandfather remains confined to his home under constant medical care, his life permanently altered by a piece of forgotten metal that the city simply failed to clean up.
NEW: 70 year old man files a $35 million claim against the city of San Diego, California after he tripped on a damaged sidewalk.
The man reportedly was knocked unconscious from the fall, breaking his back and neck.
Attorney William Berman says his client tripped on the metal… pic.twitter.com/pqZWfCigtH
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 29, 2026