Panel backs paying $14.5 million over injury by tree limb

Emma Zhou, the woman who was paralyzed from the waist down when she was struck by a 100-pound tree limb in San Francisco’s Washington Square Park in 2016, has reached a tentative $14.5 million settlement with the city.

San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Commission discussed the proposed settlement with the city attorney’s office in closed session during its meeting Thursday. The settlement discussion — and the proposed amount — were listed on the

commission’s agenda.

A person with knowledge of the discussions confirmed that the commission approved the $14.5 million settlement proposal, which means Zhou would drop the lawsuit she filed in November 2016, three months after the incident.

The limb that struck Zhou was shed by a 50-foot pine tree maintained by the Recreation and Park Department. It was located by a small children’s playground in the northwest corner of the park.

John Coté, a spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the park commission’s closed-door discussions but said in an email that the $14.5 million payout was appropriate.

“Ms. Zhou and her family suffered a terrible tragedy, and as a city we are heartbroken for them,” Coté said. “Whenever the city may be responsible for an accidental injury, we do everything we can to work in good faith to reach a fair resolution. Given all of the circumstances in this matter, we think this proposed settlement is appropriate.”

The proposed settlement still needs the approval of the Board of Supervisors. Its next meeting is on Sept. 4. Recreation and Park Commission President Mark Buell could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Zhou had been watching her children play in the park’s playground when the limb fell, fracturing her skull and severing her spinal cord. At the time, doctors estimated that Zhou would have to spend a year in the hospital rehabilitating and said she would not walk again. Zhou’s husband, Tony Tan, referred questions to the family’s attorneys, who could not be reached for comment.

In her lawsuit against the city, Zhou said the park department had “negligently pruned” the tree in a way that allowed large, weakly attached branches to grow back. Zhou’s lawyers also asserted that the city was aware of previous reports of branches falling in the park’s playground.

In 2014, the city agreed to pay $15 million to the family of Christine Svanemyr, who was killed in Holly Park in the Bernal Heights neighborhood after she was run over and killed by a Recreation and Park employee who veered the truck he was driving onto the lawn where Svanemyr was lying with her 11-month-old baby.