A $315,000.00
settlement on the eve of trial by Hyde
Oldsmobile Inc., a dealership, in favor of a
27-year-old female passenger who suffered
injuries while riding in a demonstrator
automobile being driven by the employee finance
manager of the auto dealership.
The employee and the plaintiff had met in a
bar and the employee invited the plaintiff to
travel with him in the demonstrator automobile
owned by the dealership to a restaurant for
dinner. While driving the automobile from the
restaurant at approximately midnight, the
employee began to drive in a negligent and
reckless manner, wherein the plaintiff twice
requested him to slow the vehicle down, wherein
the employee lost control of the vehicle, causing
the vehicle to leave the highway and to collide
with a tree and a telephone pole.
Plaintiff received four fractures of the
pelvis, resulting in a one-half inch leg
shortening. Approximately nine months after the
collision, the plaintiff suffered from a
ruptured diaphragm which the treating
physician testified was a direct result of the
auto accident. Through production of the
dealership employee records, it ws learned that
the employee was on probation at the time of the
accident for a previous vehicular homicide for
which he had recently served time in prison.
Liability was formulated under the theory that
the defendants were negligent trusting their
vehicle to a person that they knew or should have
known had a dangerous propensity for violence and
recklessness with an automobile as
evidenced by his prior course of conduct.
Attorneys:
Plaintiff was represented by GTLA member Robert
A. Falanga.
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