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Gov. Code, § 840.6 · Article 3. Liability of Public Employees

Gov. Code, § 840.6

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) A public employee is not liable under subdivision (a) of Section 840.2 for injury caused by a dangerous condition of public property if he establishes that the act or omission that created the condition was reasonable. The reasonableness of the act or omission that created the condition shall be determined by weighing the probability and gravity of potential injury to persons and property foreseeably exposed to the risk of injury against the practicability and cost of taking alternative action that would not create the risk of injury or of protecting against the risk of injury.

(b) A public employee is not liable under subdivision (b) of Section 840.2 for injury caused by a dangerous condition of public property if he establishes that the action taken to protect against the risk of injury created by the condition or the failure to take such action was reasonable. The reasonableness of the inaction or action shall be determined by taking into consideration the time and opportunity the public employee had to take action and by weighing the probability and gravity of potential injury to persons and property foreseeably exposed to the risk of injury against the practicability and cost of protecting against the risk of such injury.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 1963, Ch. 1681.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=840.6.
Text hash
sha256 43df05521b37545c0ac94135bee2d25a099bd601f0ce90dbbcd810c918f6a9a4
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

This section cites

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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.