Lemley v. Wilson

178 So. 3d 834, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 34, 2015 WL 968938
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 6, 2015
Docket1130160
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 178 So. 3d 834 (Lemley v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lemley v. Wilson, 178 So. 3d 834, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 34, 2015 WL 968938 (Ala. 2015).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

• The defendant, Frank Lemley, appeals from an order of the trial court granting a motion for á new trial filed by the plaintiff, Terry Wilson, after a jury had returned a verdict in favor of Lemley.

Facts

On April 17, 2009, Christopher Wilson was working for the City of Sumiton (“the Gity”). Christopher and his supervisor, Michael Carr, had been sent to mow grass on Bryan Road. It was a clear, sunny day. Carr and Christopher were in the City’s white Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck, which had emergency flashers (“the city truck”). Carr and Christopher picked up four trusties from the City jail and went to mow grass on Bryan Road. The trusties were all wearing their City-issued orange jumpsuits. At some point, they stopped for lunch and left the area where they had been mowing. They left their mowers and their warning • signs in the area. Carr testified that Christopher left his safety vest on his mower as he had been instructed to do: Carr and Christopher dropped the trusties off at the City jail' around 11:50 a.m., went to the City shop, and then went to lunch. After lunch, Carr and Christopher met back at the City shop and then went and picked up the trusties.

Around 1:25 p.m., before Carr and his crew had gotten back to the work site on Bryan Road, Tony Henderson, the driver of the City’s knuckle-boom truck, radioed Carr and asked him and his crew to come and flag traffic for him while he was operating the knuckle-boom truck on Sullivan Road, “just over the knob.” Carr, Christopher, and the trusties went to Sullivan Road. Carr testified that he pulled up on the top of the knob, parked the city truck in front of some mailboxes, and turned on the emergency flashers on the city truck. Carr and a trusty walked below where the knuckle-boom truck was located to direct traffic.' Christopher and two other trusties were next to the city truck, and those two trusties were directing traffic at that end. While the knuckle-boom truck was backing up, part of it became stuck in someone’s yard. The knuckle-boom truck was sticking out into the road perpendicular to the road; part of it was in the lane of travel on Sullivan Road for traffic coming from Sumiton.

Carr testified that between 10 and 15 vehicles went through thé area before the accident and that he did not notice that any of those vehicles had trouble stopping until traffic could be directed around the knuckle-boom truck. Carr also testified that, when the City crew is- mowing, it has signs that say “Mowers Ahead” but that there were no signs at the location where the knuckle-boom truck got stuck. ' Additionally, he testified that there were no flashing signs, orange cones, or anything else to warn about the ’presence of the [837]*837knuckle-boom truck that was in the roadway. During defense counsel’s re-cross-examination of Carr, the following occurred:

“[Defense counsel:] The City of Su-miton doesn’t have a policy about people working on the side of the road having safety devices set up?
“[Carr:] Yes.
“[Defense counsel:] And they weren’t set up, were they?
“[Carr:] Not — as our crew goes, our stuff gets set up.
“[Defense counsel:] But in this situation, they weren’t set up; right?
“[Carr:] All of our stuff was on Bryan Road.
“[Defense counsel:] Right. At the accident scene, the Safety devices were not set up; correct?”

Carr further testified that, when he received the call from Henderson, it was a situation that had to be attended to immediately and that he and Christopher did not have time to return to Bryan Road to get Christopher’s safety vest. Carr admitted that he remembered making the statement “that there were enough vests for everybody on the crew there.” However, Carr also testified that Christopher did not do anything that was against his instructions, did not do anything that Carr considered unsafe, and did not do anything that Carr would consider as violating the City’s policies.

At some point, the two , trusties whp were near. Christopher went to the city truck to get cigarettes and were no longer monitoring the traffic. Christopher was standing on the side of the road next to the city truck, and he was “kind of’ flagging traffic until the trusties got their cigarettes.

Lemley had gotten off work that ¡afternoon after working 16.5 hours at the Miller Steam Plant. Lemley had a commercial driver’s license and hauled flash at the steam plant. After leaving work, Lemley was driving home in his personal vehicle, a white Chevrolet Silverado, on Sullivan Road.

Lemley testified that, as he topped the rise on Sullivan Road, he saw the knuckle-boom truck in the roadway. He further testified:

“About the time I seen the knuckle truck, [Christopher] come out and stepped out in the road and throwed [sic] his hand up.”

He testified that Christopher kept going and threw up both hands. He further testified that he thought Christopher said “Stop,” He also testified that he put on his brakes as soon as he saw Christopher and that he “locked [his] truck down and slid 23 feet.” Lemley was not able to stop in time, and his vehicle - struck Christopher, who died of his injuries. Lemley testified that Christopher came into contact with his vehicle close to the center of his hood.

Barbara Holloway, who lived on Sullivan Road, testified that, on the afternoon of the accident, she was sitting on the front porch of her house, which was across the street from the area where the city truck was parked. She also testified that she saw Lemley’s vehicle hit Christopher; that the point of impact was in the street at her driveway; and that Lemley was in the lane of travel coming from Sumiton. Holloway further testified that she saw a white vehicle coming up the hill; that it did not look like the vehicle was slowing down; that Christopher was wáving his hands and trying to get the vehicle to stop; and that she saw Christopher fly over the hood of the vehicle. When asked if it looked like Lem-ley had slowed down or if she saw Lemley slow down before he hit Christopher, she replied:

[838]*838“It looked like he was going to go around [Christopher] and then another truck — I saw the hood of the other truck as it got,up there at the top of the hill.”

She further testified that it did not look like Lemley tried to brake and that she did not hear squealing tires or any other noise that made her think that Lemley had tried to stop his vehicle before striking Christopher.

Regina Higgins testified that she was a passenger in k blue Chevrolet Avalanche truck traveling in the opposite direction of Lemley’s vehicle and that her sister-in-law, Janice Gilkey, was driving. She testified that the knuckle-boom truck was stuck at the bottom of the hill and that a flagger 'had told them to go on; that they- were proceeding up the hill; that they saw Christopher and stopped;' that Christopher was on the side of the road by the. mailboxes; that Christopher turned and saw a vehicle coming; and that Christopher went to the center of the road and motioned with his hands to get the vehicle to stop. Higgins testified that, apparently, the vehicle kept coming because Christopher darted in front of the Avalanche to keep from getting hit and that the driver’s side of Lemley’s vehicle clipped Christopher on the side.

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Bluebook (online)
178 So. 3d 834, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 34, 2015 WL 968938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lemley-v-wilson-ala-2015.