Brannaker v. Transamerican Freight Lines, Inc., 52351
| Decision Date | 13 May 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 52351,No. 1,52351,1 |
| Citation | 428 S.W.2d 524 |
| Parties | Dennis BRANNAKER, Respondent, v. TRANSAMERICAN FREIGHT LINES, INC., a Corporation, Riggs Dairy Express Company, Sykes Transport Company, a Corporation, and Donald Murray, Appellants |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
James E. Hullverson, Hullverson, Richardson & Hullverson, St. Louis, for respondent.
Alphonso H. Voorhees, Harold A. Thomas, Jr., Frank E. Vigus, Fordyce, Mayne, Hartman, Renard & Stribling, St. Louis, for appellant, Transamerican Freight Lines, Inc.
John M. Goodwin, Henry S. Stolar, Justin C. Cordonnier, Hocker, Goodwin & MacGreevy, St. Louis, for appellant Riggs Dairy Express Co.
F. X. Cleary, Paul S. Brown, Daniel T. Rabbitt, Moser, Marsalek, Carpenter, Cleary & Jaeckel, St. Louis, for appellant Sykes Transport Co.
Luke, Cunliff, Wilson, Herr, Chavaux & McCluggage and Pual H. Chavaux, St. Louis, for appellant Donald Murray.
This is a suit for personal injuries. A tractor-trailer unit operated by defendant Donald Murray crashed into the rear of a standing police patrol car knocking it forward into the rear of plaintiff's automobile which was also stopped. The plaintiff was trapped between the front of the police car and the rear of his own automobile and seriously injured. Donald Murray owned the truck-tractor which was pulling a trailer belonging to his brother Lawrence. A verdict was directed in favor of Lawrence Murray and he is no longer in the case. Transamerican Freight Lines, Inc., Riggs Dairy Express Company, and Sykes Transport Company were sued as lessees or principals of the defendant Donald Murray. The jury found for plaintiff and against the three corporate defendants and Donald Murray in the sum of $185,000. A remittitur of $40,000 ordered by the trial court was accepted by the plaintiff and judgment was rendered for $145,000. The corporate defendants and Donald Murray have appealed.
The three corporate defendants, herein referred to as Transamerican, Riggs, and Sykes, contend that their separate motions for directed verdicts should have been sustained. Transamerican also complains of the exclusion of certain evidence. All four appellants assert that the trial court erred in failing to give Missouri Approved Instruction 2.02, that other instructions are erroneous, and that the verdict is still excessive after remittitur.
The defendant Donald Murray, aged 30, a resident of Flat River, Missouri, was a truck driver by occupation. In January 1963 he purchased a 1957 diesel tractor from Mack Truck Company. On February 4, 1963, Murray by an agreement in writing leased his tractor to Sykes for a period of two years. Pursuant to the lease Murray drove his leased tractor and pulled a trailer supplied by Sykes. In July 1963 Murray and Sykes had a disagreement as a result of which Murray did no further hauling on direct orders from Sykes. After some negotiations Murray returned to Sykes the trailer in his possession, but he did not give up the Missouri license plates obtained by Sykes but paid for by Murray. Furthermore, the name of the Sykes Company remained on the tractor together with the numbers of the Missouri Public Service Commission and Interstate Commerce Commission certificates and permits. Thereafter, Murray used a refrigerated trailer belonging to his brother. This, in general, was the situation at the time of the accident on November 9, 1963.
On November 2, 1963, pursuant to a telephone call, Murray drove the tractor-trailer unit to Marshall, Missouri, where he entered a lease with Riggs to haul a cargo of frozen TV dinners and similar commodities from Marshall to Springfield, Massachusetts. After delivering the cargo in Springfield, Murray communicated with Transamerican and solicited a cargo for his return trip. He entered into a lease with Transamerican to haul a cargo from New Britain, Connecticut, to South Bend, Indiana. After he delivered this cargo, Murray left South Bend at midnigh on November 7 and reached St. Louis about 3 p.m. the following day. He intended to stay there for the night and have the Mack Company do some work on his tractor. After spending some time at the Mack Truck terminal at Chouteau and Jefferson, he drove to the 1800 block of North Ninth Street where friends of his operated a service station. He went with friends to a restaurant where he ate food and drank some beer. He then went back to the service station where he talked for awhile and slept in his tractor for about two or three hours. On awakening he decided not to stay in St. Louis to have his tractor worked on and started driving south on Broadway toward his home in Flat River.
The plaintiff Dennis Brannaker, a single man aged 24 at the time of the trial in March 1966, had suffered a broken right leg while riding a motor scooter in June 1963 shortly before he was to start working for McDonnell Aircraft Company. While convalescing he did odd jobs and light work for 'gasoline and cigarette money'. About 1:30 a.m. on November 9, having finished doing some clean-up work in a cafeteria at Gravois and Morganford, Brannaker drove with a friend to a service station in the 7400 block of South Broadway. As the plaintiff started to drive out of the service station, a police officer directed him to pull his automobile over to the west curb of South Broadway. The police patrol car pulled up and stopped in the curb lane four to seven feet behind plaintiff's car. At the officer's request the plaintiff and his friend went back to the patrol car where they were interrogated by the police officer and after giving satisfactory identification were told they would not be detained further. In the process of returning to their automobile, the plaintiff and his friend were passing between the two cars when the tractor-trailer unit driven by defendant Murray struck the patrol car violently in the rear knocking it forward against the rear of the plaintiff's car. The plaintiff was wedged between the two automobiles and his legs were crushed. None of the appellants question the sufficiency of the proof of defendant Murray's negligence or its being the proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries. Further relevant evidence will be discussed in connection with the issues presented.
Matters of historical significance in the development of federal laws and regulations relating to commercial transportation by motor carriers are quite fully described and additional source materials indicated in Duke v. Thomas, Mo.App., 343 S.W.2d 656 at pages 658--659, and Schmidbauer v. Baltimore & Pittsburgh Motor Express Company, 228 Md. 637, 181 A.2d 325 at pages 327--328. Insofar as we are immediately concerned, one of the principal abuses that developed after the enactment of the first Motor Carrier Act in 1935 and the Missouri Act which became Chapter 390, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., was the practice whereby authorized motor carriers leased equipment from others and engaged the owners or someone for them to drive and operate the equipment as independent contractors to transport cargo for the authorized carriers. The leases were usually for a single trip or for short duration and the independent contractors were often unreliable. This practice created economic abuses and legal problems which brought on legislation and regulations designed to prevent the authorized motor carriers from delegating the performance of their franchise duties to independent contractors and from engaging in ruinous competition and evading their public responsibilities. Among the requirements imposed to lessen such abuses were the provisions that no lease of equipment from an owner should be for a term of less than 30 days and that the authorized carrier would retain control of the equipment and be responsible for its operation when the owner or his employee was the driver of the vehicle.
The present Motor Carrier Act governing the use of motor vehicles not owned by authorized carriers, 49 U.S.C.A. § 304(e)(1), authorizes the Interstate Commerce Commission to prescribe regulations requiring that any lease contract or other arrangement with respect to the use by authorized carriers of motor vehicles not owned by them 'shall specify the period during which it is to be in effect, and shall specify the compensation to be paid by the motor carrier, and requiring that during the entire period of any such lease, contract, or other arrangement a copy thereof shall be carried in each motor vehicle covered thereby'. Subsection (e)(2) of § 304 further provides that the Commission may promulgate 'such other regulations as may be reasonably necessary in order to assure that while motor vehicles are being so used the motor carriers will have full discretion and control of such vehicles and will be fully responsible for the operation thereof in accordance with applicable law and regulations, as if they were the owners of such vehicles, including the requirements prescribed by or under the provisions of this chapter with respect to safety of operation and equipment and inspection thereof, which requirements may include but shall not be limited to promulgation of regulations requiring liability and cargo insurance covering all such equipment.' Italics added.
Consistent with the federal statutes, the Interstate Commerce Commission adopted regulations, 49 CFR 207.4, providing that authorized carriers may perform authorized transportation in or with equipment which they do not own under these, among other, conditions: the lease must be in writing and be made between the authorized carrier and the owner of the equipment and signed by the parties or by their duly authorized agents; the lease must specify the period for which it applies and when the equipment is to be operated for the authorized carrier by the owner or his employee the duration of the lease shall not be less than 30 days; and the lease shall 'provide for the...
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