Esler v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 78-1173
| Decision Date | 13 November 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-1173,78-1173 |
| Citation | 585 F.2d 903 |
| Parties | 3 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 681 June ESLER, Appellee, v. SAFEWAY STORES, INC., and Norris Shoaf, Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Paul H. Niewald (argued) Niewald, Risjord & Waldeck, and Ronald K. Barker, Kansas City, Mo., filed briefs for appellants.
Randall E. Hendricks (argued) of Stinson, Mag, Thomson, McEvers & Fizzell, and Paul E. Donnelly, Kansas City, Mo., filed brief for appellee.
Before HEANEY and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges, and HANSON, * Senior District Judge.
Safeway Stores, Inc., and Norris Shoaf appeal from a judgment entered after a jury trial awarding June Esler $152,000 for the wrongful death of her husband, John Esler. John Esler was killed when a tractor-trailer, owned by Safeway and driven by Shoaf, struck the boom arm of a crane that supported a basket in which Esler was working on a traffic signal light. The collision propelled Esler out of the basket and onto the ground causing his death. June Esler brought this diversity action under Missouri's humanitarian doctrine, a form of the last clear chance doctrine. See Brown v. Gamm, 525 F.2d 60 (8th Cir. 1975); W. Prosser, Law of Torts 430-432 (4th ed. 1971). She alleged that Shoaf, by the exercise of the highest degree of care, should have seen John Esler in a position of peril in time to have avoided a collision with the crane. 1 The parties stipulated that if Shoaf was found liable, then Safeway was also liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior.
On the evening of March 24, 1976, Shoaf was delivering bread along his regular route to eleven Safeway Stores in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. The ninth store on his route was located near the intersection of Highway 50 Eastbound and Raytown Road. After making his delivery, Shoaf turned onto Raytown Road. He proceeded north to the intersection where he stopped for a red light. Just as his light turned from red to green, Shoaf directed his attention to a car approaching from his left on Highway 50 Eastbound to determine whether it was going to stop at the intersection. The car stopped and Shoaf crossed the intersection. He continued straight north along Raytown Road a short distance until he heard "a banging or crashing noise." Shoaf thought he had struck one of the signal lights. He pulled over in front of a service station and examined his trailer. He found that the upper right front corner had been dented. Shoaf walked to the service station and called the police to report the low-hanging traffic signal.
The crane supporting Esler was fifty feet north of the intersection. The body of the...
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Safeway Stores, Inc. v. City of Raytown
...it in a wrongful death action in United States District Court, Western District of Missouri, March 24, 1976. Esler v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 585 F.2d 903 (8th Cir. 1978). Safeway did not implead respondents in the original suit for purposes of subjecting them to a joint judgment as concurren......