Judge drops Metro as defendant in 2018 A Line fatal stabbing

A judge Monday dismissed all claims against Metro that were filed by the widow of a man stabbed to death in 2018 while riding a Metro train.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa R. Jasko l ruled there were no triable issues against Metro in plaintiff Fanfan Jiang's lawsuit, tossing the complaint's allegations for wrongful death, negligence of a public employee, dangerous condition of public property and survival action.

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The judge wrote that Jiang's foreseeability argument rested on the premise that Metro can anticipate that people who are homeless, transient or transient, or mentally ill may attack passengers on its trains because Metro knows that such attacks have happened in the past.

"But to raise a triable issue of fact, plaintiff must present evidence that Metro had notice that this particular assault was to take place," the judge wrote.

The only cause of action left is Jiang's claim for battery against Peter Munoz, the alleged perpetrator of the fatal stabbing of the late Xuezhong Bao.

In their court papers filed in advance of Monday's hearing, Jiang's attorneys urged the judge to keep their client's causes of action against Metro alive.

"This is not a case of additional security, which is addressed by much of the case law cited by (Metro)," Jiang's lawyers contended in their pleadings. "This case is a matter of no security, despite the contractual obligations (Metro) undertook on its own to provide security on its line where the murder occurred."

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Bao and Munoz, a transient, made separate boarding on the Metro A line (then known as the Gold Line) in Azusa late on the morning of Nov. 27, 2018, and not long afterward Munoz stabbed the victim in the upper chest, the plaintiff's lawyers stated in their court papers. Other passengers gave aid to Bao and notified the conductor, the only Metro employee on the train at the time, according to Jiang's attorneys' court papers.

Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel also later gave Bao help, but he died before noon, according to his widow's lawyers' pleadings.

"With the increase in homeless people at stations, there was a decrease in workers and upkeep at stations," Jiang's attorneys maintained. "The increase in homeless persons entering the Metro was because no one was monitoring the homeless situation."

In 2018 there were about 80 personnel who worked Metro's transit security division compared to some 175 now, according to Jiang's lawyers' court papers.

"Based on the facts, Metro failed in its duty to provide safe transportation for its passengers," Jiang's lawyers argued. "Metro was aware of the ongoing assaults on its lines and failed to take reasonable steps and measures to make sure its passengers were safe aboard its trains."

But in their court papers, Metro attorneys maintained that the agency was not negligent.

"Suspect Munoz calmly walked over to decedent Bao and, without making any commotion, without making any noises and without saying a word, plunged the knife into the decedent's chest and sliced his aorta," the Metro attorneys stated in their court papers. "Yet, how can one know what measures will protect against the thug, the narcotic addict, the degenerate, the psychopath and the psychotic?"

Metro is "not the insurer of its passengers' safety" and no California case has held a transportation agency liable for a sudden assault which occurs with no warning, according to the Metro lawyers' motion.

Jiang filed her original suit in September 2019 and it was amended four times.

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