Rice v. Ringsby Truck Lines
| Citation | 302 F.2d 550 |
| Decision Date | 02 May 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 13545.,13545. |
| Parties | Dave RICE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. RINGSBY TRUCK LINES and Lawrence Howard Cash, individually and doing business as Ringsby Truck Lines, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
Kevin D. Kelly, La Salle, Ill., Sidney Z. Karasik, Chicago, Ill., George W. Angerstein, Chicago, Ill., of counsel, for appellant.
Oswell G. Treadway, Joseph H. Hinshaw, Leonel I. Hatch, Jr., Chicago, Ill., for appellees.
Before HASTINGS, Chief Judge, and DUFFY and KILEY, Circuit Judges.
This suit was commenced by plaintiff Dave Rice to recover damages for personal injuries and by plaintiff Harry Harper for damages to his tractor-trailer, occasioned by the alleged negligence of the defendants in driving and operating another tractor-trailer.
On April 18, 1957, plaintiff Rice was driving a 1958 Diamond T tractor pulling a semitrailer, in a westerly direction on public highway 92 in the County of Bureau, Illinois. The tractor-trailer had been leased to Frank B. Mason, d/b/a Mason & Sons, and Rice was an employee of Mason. At the same time, on the same highway, and also proceeding in a westerly direction was a tractor-trailer owned by Ringsby Truck Lines and driven by defendant Cash.
A collision involving plaintiff's tractor-trailer unit occurred about 5 a. m. on a foggy morning. The highway was of concrete construction, the paved surface having a width of eighteen feet and consisting of two lanes of travel. At the time of the collision, the Ringsby unit had stopped or was in the process of stopping, at a point just east of a small bridge. The plaintiff's unit attempted either to pass or to avoid the Ringsby unit, and swung into the eastbound lane, colliding with two tractor-trailer units being driven in the south lane in an easterly direction.
It is the plaintiff's claim that the Ringsby tractor-trailer stopped suddenly without giving any warning, by lights or otherwise, and obstructed the north half of the highway, thus causing plaintiff's unit driven by Rice to enter the southerly half of the highway. Plaintiff Rice received serious personal injuries for which he seeks damages of $200,000. Plaintiff Harper seeks to recover the value of his tractor-trailer unit.
A trial of the issues herein was held, but the jury was unable to agree upon a verdict and was discharged. In the meantime, a suit for property damage arising out of the same occurrence as described in the complaint herein, had been commenced in the Circuit Court of Rock Island County, Illinois. The case was entitled: General Expressways, Inc., a corporation v. Frank B. Mason, d/b/a Mason & Sons, Western Transportation Company, a corporation and Ringsby Truck Lines, a corporation. Plaintiff Rice was not a party to this suit, but testified at the trial as a witness.
In the Rock Island case, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of General Expressways against Frank B. Mason, but exonerated Ringsby Truck Lines. The verdict was a general verdict. No interrogatories were submitted. It was admitted in that case that Dave Rice was the driver of the Mason tractor at the time of the collision. The trial court gave detailed instructions as to the duties of a driver of an automotive vehicle on Illinois highways. The Court also instructed in support of General Expressways' theory that Mason was chargeable with derivative responsibility for Rice's operation of the vehicle. The Court also instructed as to the statutory requirements as to brakes on motor vehicles being maintained in good working order.
After judgment had been entered in the Rock Island case, defendants in the case at bar moved for judgment in their favor. They claimed the jury verdict and the judgment in the Rock Island case adjudicated the negligence of Dave Rice while operating the equipment of Harry Harper, and that such verdict and judgment operated as a bar to the further prosecution of the instant case by reason of the doctrine of estoppel by verdict or judgment or both.
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Graves v. Associated Transport, Inc., 9727.
...party to that action and had no right to control its conduct. Makariw v. Rinard, 336 F.2d 333, 336 (3 Cir. 1964); Rice v. Ringsby Truck Lines, 302 F.2d 550, 552 (7 Cir. 1962); Restatement, Judgments § 96, comment (j) (1942). The thrust of the mutuality rule was that since one not a party to......
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Gorski v. Commercial Insurance Co. of Newark, NJ
...They are fully applicable. * * *" See also Engelbrecht v. Bowen, 300 F. 2d 891 (9th Cir. 1962). The decision in Rice v. Ringsby Truck Lines, 302 F.2d 550 (7th Cir. 1962), is not, in the opinion of this court, based upon similar circumstances, as the court there "Rice has not had his day in ......
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Benson v. Wanda Petroleum Co., B--2473
...conduct of the prior suit, with no right to examine witnesses or to take other action to protect his interests. See Rice v. Ringsby Truck Lines, 302 F.2d 550 (7th Cir. 1962); Pesce v. Brecher, 302 Mass. 211, 19 N.E.2d 36 (1939); see also in accord, Adams v. Woodfin, 243 Ark. 348, 419 S.W.2d......
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Towns v. Yellow Cab Co.
...court, and it would serve no purpose to repeat the court's discussion here. In this court, however, plaintiff cites Rice v. Ringsby Truck Lines (7th Cir. 1962), 302 F.2d 550, for additional authority in support of her position. In Rice, in a prior suit a judgment was obtained against Rice's......