San Francisco 49ers Win Lawsuit Over Fan’s Parking Lot Death

A California appellate panel has tossed a suit seeking to hold the San Francisco 49ers liable for the death of a fan who was punched by another fan, adding to a line of cases where property owners were cleared of liability in attacks by third parties.

The family of a man who died, allegedly as a result of injuries he suffered when he was attacked and punched in the face by another man in an altercation in a parking lot outside of Levi’s Stadium in 2018, can’t sue the San Francisco 49ers and their security company over the man’s death, a state appeals court has ruled.

A three-justice panel of the California Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose sided with the 49ers and their fellow defendants in the action brought by the family of Mark Stokes.

According to court documents, Mark Stokes was assaulted as he left a 49ers game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Oct. 7, 2018.

The 49ers had lost that particular game, 28-18 to the Arizona Cardinals. It had marked their third straight defeat and fourth loss in five games to open the 2018 season.

According to court documents, Stokes attended the game with three friends and drank an known quantity of beer and some whiskey while tailgating before the game and drank more beer while in the stadium during the game.

He left the stadium and headed back with his group to the parking lot to return to his friend’s vehicle.

According to court documents, in the parking lot, Stokes and his friends came near a vehicle owned by David Gonzales. According to the narrative, Gonzales had attended the game with his girlfiend and two other friends and had also drunk an unknown amount of beer both while tailgating and in the stadium.

According to the court narrative, neither Stokes, Gonzales nor their friends had interacted in any way either before, during or after the game until the moment Stokes neared where Gonzales had parked.

At that point, Stokes reportedly kicked a beer bottle that was on the ground and it struck Gonzales’ car.

According to court narrative, Gonzales then allegedly rushed at Stokes and punched him in the face without warning, causing Stokes to fall to the ground.. When Stokes attempted to get back up, Stokes again punched him in the face, causing him to strike his head against the pavement.

According to court documents, the entire incident – from the time Stokes kicked the bottle until he was punched and struck his head on the pavement – lasted mere seconds.

According to court documents, Stokes received on-site emergency medical care and was transported to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries that reportedly left him unable to work.

Gonzales was arrested the day after the  incident and charged with assault. He was sentenced to one year in the county jail.

According to court documents, Stokes died in March 2021 after suffering a severe asthma attack that his family says was caused by his injuries.

Stokes’ family sued Gonzales, but also sued the 49ers and Landmark Event Staffing Services, alleging they should pay for not doing enough to prevent Gonzales from attacking Stokes.

The 49ers and their co-defendants, however, argued the Stokes’ tragic case against them couldn’t stand, in part, because there was no opportunity for any security or event staff on site to intervene.

They argued “that the entire incident was ‘swift and sudden,’ occurring in seconds, and that any suggestion that the injury could have been prevented by increased security measures was ‘pure speculation.’”

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Drew C. Takaichi agreed, granting them summary judgment.

In granting summary judgment, a judge rules that the facts of the case and the law are clearly in favor of the prevailing party, meaning there is no need for a jury to decide the case at trial.

The Stokes family appealed, arguing the judge wrongly rejected their assertions event staff could have ejected Gonzales when he was seen drinking a beer in the parking lot after the game in violation of conduct rules, and the 49ers could have provided more visible security throughout the parking lot as a deterrent to potential violence.

But on appeal, the Sixth District justices agreed the 49ers and their event staff could not have done anything to prevent the sudden attack that they say ultimately claimed Stokes’ life.

“… Even assuming arguendo that it may be reasonably inferred from plaintiffs’ evidence that security was absent from the parking lot, plaintiffs’ deterrence theory would be that: (a) if security had patrolled the specific area in the vast parking lot where Gonzales was parked, (b) and if security had done so shortly before or during the particular time that the Gonzales group arrived after leaving the Stadium and while they were getting ready to leave, (c) and if Gonzales had actually observed security patrolling the area at the time, (d) and if Gonzales had thought about having seen security during the split second in which he reacted impulsively to Stokes’s having kicked a bottle into Gonzales’s vehicle, then Gonzales might have been deterred from taking the swift and violent reaction of assaulting Stokes. This theory, likewise, is based upon conjecture or speculation, rather than upon evidence that is substantial,” the justices wrote.

The decision was authored by Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian. Justices Allison M. Danner and Charles E. Wilson concurred.

The Stokes family was represented by attorneys Ted William Pelletier, of San Anselmo, and Thomas Alan Paoli, of San Francisco.

The 49ers was represented by attorneys William N. Edlin and Andrew D. Perez, of Edlin Gallagher Huie + Blum, of San Francisco.

Landmark was represented by attorney Laura E. Malkofsky, of Foran Glennon, of San Francisco and San Jose.