News

Platzer v. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area was tried in May 2001 by Mark Tokunaga. This was a case in which the mother of a seven-year-old boy signed a release of liability when she placed her son in a ski school lesson. The boy was seriously injured when he fell from a chairlift (a common carrier). The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of all negligence claims based on the release and upheld the jury’s verdict in favor of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area on the issue of gross negligence. Platzer v. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, 104 Cal.App.4th 1253 (2002)

In a 2001 jury trial, Ray Gates successfully defended Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Central California where plaintiff claimed a failure to diagnose a myocardial infarction in the Intensive Care Unit resulting in permanent heart damage.

Ray defended USAA in bad faith cases at trial and through appeal, including the highly publicized case of Moralez v. USAA, which involved the disappearance and likely murder of his key witness, Doris Inzunza, a USAA employee and member of a Sacramento organization protecting women from stalkers. The CBS news program “48 Hours” extensively covered the case.

In Westlye v. Look Sports, Inc., 17 Cal.App.4th 1715 (1993), Mark Tokunaga successfully defended ski area clients at the appellate level, where the California Third District Court of Appeal upheld a ski rental shop’s release of liability as to the negligence and warranty claims.