DiGerolamo v. Gale | Personal Injury from Tractor-Trailer Accident

TORTS | MOTOR VEHICLES – submitted by truck crash attorney, Jeffrey Hark.

36-7-3005 DiGerolamo v. Gale , Dist. Ct. (Kugler, U.S.D.J.) (12 pp.)

In this personal injury action arising out of a collision between the vehicle driven by plaintiff and the tractor-trailer driven by defendant Gale, defendant Cheyenne’s Pilot Cars Inc., which contracted with the tractor-trailer’s owner to provide an escort car for the truck, moves for summary judgment on the issue of liability for plaintiff’s injuries. Plaintiff cross-moves for summary judgment on the issue of vicarious liability against Cheyenne. The court grants Cheyenne’s motion, finding that because plaintiff failed to produce expert testimony regarding the standard of care required of a pilot car operator and whether the driver breached those duties, and because plaintiff’s introduction of best practice and training documents published by the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association was not sufficient without testimony that they set forth the stand of care in the escort car industry, plaintiff has failed to establish any breach of a duty owed to him by the driver of the escort car and Cheyenne and he has failed to show an issue of material fact that could lead a jury to find that the driver’s actions as the escort car operator proximately caused the collision. The court denies plaintiff’s cross-motion as moot. [Filed February 7, 2014]