On Aug. 31, 2008, plaintiff Jerry Turmel, 67, a disabled Veteran, was riding his daughter’s horse toward a wrought iron gate on a property owned by Santos Chavez in rural San Bernardino County, where his daughter and her boyfriend lived. While allegedly attempting to dismount near the gate, Turmel was thrown from the horse and sustained to his chest, lower back and shoulder. Turmel sued Chavez, alleging that the defendant failed to properly maintain the gate, creating a dangerous condition. Turmel claimed that as he attempted to get off the horse and open the gate, which was up on its rollers, the wind blew the gate down onto the cement driveway and scared the horse, causing him to be thrown. He claimed he was invited to the property for a barbecue by his daughter and her boyfriend, Chavez’s tenant, and admitted that he had been drinking alcohol before the incident. However, he claimed that the gate was in poor condition, and that his daughter told him that the gate would occasionally come off the rollers and fall down. Turmel further claimed that Chavez was given notice of the gate’s poor condition, but that he failed to timely address the matter. Chavez denied notice of the gate falling down periodically and denied ever receiving any written notice about it. He testified that his tenant told him a month before the incident that the police had come to the property and knocked down the gate during an arrest. Chavez continued that when he visited the property, he saw the gate on the ground and was told, after asking his tenant what happened, that it was due to a police incident. Thus, he claimed that the gate in question had not been on its rollers at the time of the accident and that the gate had remained on the ground for about one month since the police incident. Defense counsel contended that Chavez’s negligence was not a substantial factor in causing harm to Turmel. Counsel also contended that the lease required that permission from Chavez must be obtained prior to bringing animals onto the property, and that Chavez had given no permission for the horse to be present on the date of the incident. In addition, defense counsel argued that Turmel could have steered the horse around the gate, avoiding the incident altogether. Thus, counsel contended that Turmel was 100 percent responsible for his ., Turmel was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was hospitalized for three days with multiple left rib fractures, a punctured lung, a left scapula fracture, and transverse process fractures at L2, L3 and L4. He also sustained various contusions. Turmel underwent a procedure for the lung puncture and the transverse process fractures were treated conservatively. Turmel claimed that he suffers residual upper back complaints as a result of the lumbar . Thus, he claimed his medical bills totaled $46,917.02. Defense counsel noted that Turmel had no subsequent medical treatment for his alleged .