Dettmann v. Kruckenberg
| Decision Date | 06 July 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-1461.,98-1461. |
| Parties | Marc DETTMANN, as Executor of the Estate of Laurie Jean Dettmann, Deceased, Appellee, v. Michael Scott KRUCKENBERG and Keith Kruckenberg, Appellants, Aaron Jones, Appellee, and Jennifer Orth, David Wayne Anderson, and Ike Auen Distributing Company, Appellees. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
William G. Enke, Fort Dodge, for appellants Kruckenberg.
Gary W. Armstrong of Mack, Hansen, Gadd, Armstrong & Brown, P.C., Storm Lake, and Michael R. Boyce of Montgomery, Barry and Bovee, Spencer, for appellee Dettmann.
Mark Brownlee of Kersten Brownlee Hendricks, L.L.P., Fort Dodge, for appellee Jones.
John C. Gray and Jeff W. Wright of Heidman, Redmond, Fredregill, Patterson, Plaza & Dykstra, L.L.P., Sioux. City, for appellee Orth Francis Fitzgibbons and Harold W. White of Fitzgibbons Law Firm, Estherville, for appellees Anderson and Auen Distributing.
Considered en banc.
Plaintiff, Marc Dettmann, brought this wrongful death action as executor of the estate of his wife, Laurie Dettmann. Laurie Dettmann died when the vehicle she was driving was struck by a vehicle being driven by an intoxicated driver, defendant Michael Kruckenberg, age nineteen. Earlier on the day of the accident, Kruckenberg and his teenage friend, defendant Aaron Jones, stole beer from a beer truck that was parked at a convenience store and consumed the beer. Plaintiff's wrongful death action named as defendants, Michael Kruckenberg and his father Keith Kruckenberg, who owned the car, Aaron Jones, David Anderson, the beer truck driver, Ike Auen Distributing Company, the beer distributor, and Jennifer Orth, a teenage friend of Michael Kruckenberg who allegedly provided Kruckenberg with alcohol on the day of the accident. In a jury trial, the district court sustained a motion for directed verdict by defendants Anderson and the beer distributor. After a jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff against the Kruckenbergs, the district court entered judgment in favor of plaintiff for compensatory damages in the amount of $640,462. Kruckenbergs appeal and plaintiff and defendant Jones cross-appeal, raising various issues.
Upon our review, we find no reversible error in the district court proceedings and affirm the judgment of the district court.
Around 1:00 p.m. on August 16, 1995, teenage friends Michael Kruckenberg and Aaron Jones stopped at a convenience store to buy gas for Kruckenberg's vehicle, which was owned by Michael's father, Keith Kruckenberg. As they were putting gas in the vehicle, a Bud Light beer truck and trailer, being driven by David Anderson and owned by Ike Auen Distributing Company, pulled into the store's parking lot. Anderson exited the truck and entered the store to check on the product needs of the store operator. While Anderson was inside the store, Jones walked to the truck, opened one of the unlocked closed doors, removed an eighteen pack of Bud Light beer, and put it in Kruckenberg's car. Kruckenberg also removed an eighteen pack of beer from the truck. Anderson was gone from his truck for approximately five minutes and was unaware of the theft until approximately twenty minutes later. Anderson did not see Michael or Aaron at any time during his stop at the convenience store.
Kruckenberg and Jones then drove to the home of their teenage friend Jennifer Orth. They also had other beer in the car with them that they had obtained from another source. While at that location, Michael Kruckenberg drank eight to twelve cans of the beer stolen from the beer truck and two glasses of sloe gin and Pepsi that Orth provided him. Other youths were at the party at Orth's home. At approximately 4:30 p.m., after the party broke up, Kruckenberg and Jones began riding around the Lytton/Rockwell City area in Kruckenberg's car. At approximately 5:25 p.m., Kruckenberg's car ran a stop sign in rural Calhoun County, Iowa, and collided with Laurie Dettmann's car, killing her. A blood test given to Kruckenberg one hour and twenty minutes after the accident revealed a blood-alcohol concentration of .098. Michael was subsequently charged with and convicted of vehicular homicide, a felony carrying a sentence of more than one year in prison. See Iowa Code § 707.6A (1995).1 Our court of appeals affirmed that conviction on December 29, 1997.
On July 15, 1997, plaintiff Marc Dettmann, Laurie's husband and the executor of her estate, filed a wrongful death action against Michael Kruckenberg and his father Keith, owner of the vehicle, Aaron Jones, Jennifer Orth, David Anderson, the driver of the beer truck, and Ike Auen Distributing, the beer truck owner. In the petition, plaintiff alleged that Michael negligently operated the vehicle that collided with Laurie's vehicle and that defendants Jones and Orth had supplied alcohol to Michael. Additionally, plaintiff alleged that David Anderson, the beer truck driver, and his employer, the beer distributor, were negligent in failing to lock the beer truck, thereby allowing the theft of beer from the truck to occur.
In an answer filed July 24, 1997, Michael and Keith Kruckenberg admitted that Michael was the driver of the vehicle that collided with Laurie Dettmann's vehicle. However, in early 1998, Michael and Keith filed a motion to amend their answer to deny that Michael was driving the vehicle and that it was being driven with Keith's consent. Michael and Keith also sought permission to file a cross-claim against Aaron Jones, alleging that Aaron, not Michael, was driving the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the accident and without the knowledge and consent of Keith Kruckenberg. The court sustained the Kruckenbergs' motion and allowed them to amend their answer to deny that Michael was driving the vehicle, but overruled defendant Kruckenbergs' motion to file a cross-claim against Aaron Jones.
Approximately one week before the civil case trial was scheduled to begin, the Kruckenbergs filed supplemental answers to interrogatories propounded by plaintiff Dettmann, which revealed that an individual, Leta Jensen, may testify at trial that Aaron Jones admitted to her, earlier in the year, that he, and not Michael, was driving the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the accident.
Defendant Aaron Jones then filed a pre-trial motion under Iowa rule of evidence 104(a), asking the court to exclude at trial any evidence offered by the Kruckenbergs that Aaron, and not Michael, was driving the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the accident. Specifically, Jones argued that Kruckenberg's criminal case conviction of vehicular homicide that arose from the accident, see Iowa Code § 707.6A(1), precluded Michael from litigating the identity of the driver in plaintiff Dettmann's wrongful death action. The trial court sustained Jones's motion, finding that the elements of issue preclusion had been satisfied as to the identity of the person driving the Kruckenberg vehicle that collided with the Dettmann vehicle. In light of this ruling, the court denied plaintiff Dettmann's motion to amend plaintiff's petition as being moot.
The matter then proceeded to trial.
At the close of all evidence, defendants Anderson and Ike Auen Distributing Company, the beer distributor [hereinafter collectively referred to as Anderson], moved for a directed verdict. The court sustained the motion, based on its conclusions that there was no special relationship between Anderson and Laurie Dettmann such that Anderson owed Laurie a legal duty. The court also concluded that even if Anderson was negligent in failing to lock the beer truck doors, a series of intervening acts, including (1) theft of the beer, (2) possession and consumption of the beer by the minors, and (3) driving in a reckless or intoxicated condition, were sufficient to sever all proximate cause and liability of defendant Anderson to plaintiff.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff Dettmann, finding that defendants Michael Kruckenberg, Aaron Jones and Jennifer Orth were each at fault, but that Michael's negligence alone was the proximate cause of plaintiff's compensatory damages. The jury also found that Michael's conduct was willful and wanton, but awarded no punitive damages. The court entered judgment in favor of plaintiff and against the Kruckenbergs in the amount of $640,462, representing the compensatory damage amount awarded by the jury.
Defendants Kruckenberg appeal, arguing that the district court erred in finding that the Kruckenbergs were precluded from litigating whether Michael was the driver at the time of the accident and in refusing to allow their expert to testify regarding speed of the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the collision.
Plaintiff Dettmann cross-appeals, contending that the district court erred in sustaining defendant Anderson's motion for directed verdict. Defendant Aaron Jones also cross-appeals. However, based on our ultimate decision in this case, we need only address the merits of the issues raised on appeal by defendants Michael and Keith Kruckenberg and by plaintiff Dettmann.
The defendants Kruckenberg raise two issues on appeal. First, they assert that the district court erred in ruling that they were precluded from offering evidence that Aaron Jones, and not Michael, was driving the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the accident. Second, the Kruckenbergs contend that the court erred in refusing to allow their expert to testify regarding the speed of the Kruckenberg vehicle at the time of the collision.
Approximately one week prior to the scheduled civil trial date, Kruckenbergs filed a supplemental answer to interrogatories propounded by plaintiff, indicating that the Kruckenbergs might call as a witness at trial an individual named Leta Jensen who may testify Aaron Jones admitted to her in early 1998, that he was driving the...
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