Redding v. Conally Ford, Inc.

662 S.W.2d 938, 1983 Tenn. App. LEXIS 646
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 9, 1983
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 662 S.W.2d 938 (Redding v. Conally Ford, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Redding v. Conally Ford, Inc., 662 S.W.2d 938, 1983 Tenn. App. LEXIS 646 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

CONNER, Judge.

This is a wrongful death case arising out of a single vehicle accident involving multiple plaintiffs and consolidated for trial and appeal. At the conclusion of all the proof a verdict was directed for the defendant-ap-pellee, Conally Ford, Inc.1 Melvin R. Red-ding, Sr., administrator of the estate of Melvin R. Redding, Jr., and Marie Partlow Hogan, likewise the administrator of the estate of Richard Ben Partlow, II, appeal. An additional plaintiff at trial, William J. Brazil, Jr., does not.

The respective complaints alleged Randall W. Anderson to be guilty of negligence and that Conally Ford had done certain work upon the driving and steering mechanism of Anderson’s vehicle; that the work done was faulty and certain looseness was present in said mechanism, permitting it to oversteer and improperly control the vehicle, proximately contributing to the deaths of plaintiffs’ intestates and injury to the non-appealing plaintiff. Mr. Anderson was originally a party defendant, but after his discharge in bankruptcy, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the suit against him.

The proof showed that the plaintiffs’ in-testates, as well as eight other persons, were the guests of Mr. Anderson in a 1975 [940]*940Ford pickup truck owned and driven by him on Sunday afternoon, October 22, 1978, for what might be characterized as a “joyride,” and which, like so many others before, ended in tragedy. The parties at various times became passengers with Mr. Redding and Mr. Partlow joining the group as occupants in the rear of the truck in mid-afternoon. After all the parties were together, they journeyed on rural roads in northern Davidson County and Cheatham County, and in late afternoon were traveling in an east-wardly direction on Little Marrowbone Road in Davidson County; and as it approached the intersection of Little Marrow-bone Road and Eaton’s Creek Road, the truck failed to negotiate a curve, overturned and, as a result, Messrs. Redding and Partlow were fatally injured.

On that day the weather was good and the road dry. The accident occurred at approximately 4:45 p.m. and there was still daylight.

At the trial the plaintiffs introduced three witnesses who testified to matters material to this appeal.

Mr. Brazil was a passenger sitting in the rear of the pickup truck. He testified the parties had consumed a six pack and two quarts of beer which had been purchased in the early afternoon but that no one was drunk.

Concerning their travels he stated:

Q Was Randall Anderson driving all this time?
A Yes.
Q Was he causing you concern as far as his driving was concerned?
A No, he was not.
Q How was the truck behaving as far as the performance was concerned?
A It seemed all right at the time.
He testified regarding the accident:
Q Just describe to us then, if you would please, as you came up and had the wreck.
A Well, the only thing—the last thing I remember was that the vehicle went out of control and Randy Anderson was fighting the steering wheel.
Q Did you see that?
A Yes.
Q How could you see that?
A Well, I was sitting on the back—like here’s the front of the truck (indicating), I was looking right at the man, at Randy.
Q How was he fighting the steering wheel?
A He was making that comer. It just looked like it went out of control. There wasn’t no steering in it. It didn’t matter if he was turning the steering wheel or not. It was just going.
Q Can you demonstrate?
A The truck was going to the left and he was trying to fight the wheel. He was trying to turn it back to the right.
Q What effect did that have?
A None. After it went back to the right he tried to fight it back to the left. There was no action on the steering.
Q Then what happened?
A We had that wreck.

Mr. Brazil also testified that Mr. Anderson had been drinking beer, had made a remark that he was drunk and at one time had suggested that he had been drinking and didn’t want to drive.

Mr. Anderson testified the truck was bought used from Conally Ford on June 9, 1979, some 4V2 months before the accident. Upon purchase no representations were made to him as to the condition of the truck.

He purchased a slave cylinder, a device for a 4 wheel drive vehicle to keep it from shimmying, from Conally Ford shortly thereafter. Mr. Anderson himself did the installation of this slave cylinder. He had had some previous employment with Royal Ford on the line, working on any vehicle that came in, and he considered himself a good enough mechanic to install a slave cylinder.

Approximately a month and a half after the truck was bought the front end “acted [941]*941silly on it; ... the power steering was squeaking and making noises.” He took the vehicle to Conally Ford and talked to the shop foreman, who he could only identify as “Woody,” telling him the front end was “acting funny” and that he wanted it checked. He testified this was done and that a man unidentified at trial worked on it for a while, drove it, came back, worked on it another time and drove it again. Mr. Anderson remained in the waiting room during this process but did watch the truck being jacked up, let down and driven. Mr. Anderson did not know what repairs were effected, made no payment for the work and never saw a work order for whatever may have been done. In the next few days he took the truck to Houston McQuistion, a mechanic, to look at the front end and make sure there was nothing wrong and to align the front end of the truck.

Mr. Anderson testified regarding the accident:

Q Just describe the wreck itself, please, sir.
A As I went into the curve at the road it was real rough. Since then they’ve paved it over. I must have hit a chuckhole and the steering wheel started wallowing. Evidently the steering wheel just locked and went flying in my hand and I couldn’t get a hold to it.
Q Was it difficult to hold?
A I couldn’t get a hold to it. It jerked out of my hand.
Q What about the movements of the truck as far as the road was concerned?
A We was going into a curve when I hit a chuckhole, or whatever it was, I guess, when it started doing that, plus the weight of the people in the truck and what we had in there, the steering wheel started shimmying all at once and it spinned around.

He estimated his speed at 35 miles an hour at the time of the accident and thought he had consumed approximately 3 cans of beer that day.

Edward Suddarth testified he was a mechanic for 35 years, had extensive experience in the maintenance and repair of trucks of the type that Mr. Anderson owned and that after the wreck, he examined the vehicle.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
662 S.W.2d 938, 1983 Tenn. App. LEXIS 646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redding-v-conally-ford-inc-tennctapp-1983.