Ex parte Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc.
Citation | 728 So.2d 155 |
Parties | Ex parte CRABTREE INDUSTRIAL WASTE, INC., and Curtis Larry Ryals II. (Re Richard McDaniel v. Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., and Curtis Larry Ryals II). |
Decision Date | 21 August 1998 |
Court | Supreme Court of Alabama |
Henry T. Morrissette and Richard M. Gaal of Hand Arendall, L.L.C., Mobile, for petitioners.
Richard D. Home, Mobile, for respondent.
We have granted certiorari review to consider whether the Court of Civil Appeals properly applied the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.
The facts of this case are set out fully in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion. McDaniel v. Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., 728 So.2d 151 (Ala.Civ.App.1997). A wheel came off a moving truck and caused the plaintiff to be injured. The plaintiff filed an action against the driver and the owner of the truck. The evidence showed that no one knows what caused the wheel to come off. The plaintiff relied on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The driver of the truck testified that he had inspected the truck on the morning of the accident and had found no visible problems. The evidence shows that the wheel had been repaired by a third party only three days before the accident occurred, and there is evidence that at least two of the studs on the truck wheel had broken off at the hub.
For the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur to supply an inference of negligence where there is no direct evidence of negligence, the following test must be met:
"For the doctrine to apply, there are at least three essentials: (1) the defendant must have had full management and control of the instrumentality which caused the injury; (2) the circumstances must be such that according to common knowledge and the experience of mankind the accident could not have happened if those having control of the [instrumentality] had not been negligent; (3) the plaintiffs injury must have resulted from the accident."
Alabama Power Co. v. Berry, 254 Ala. 228, 236, 48 So.2d 231, 238 (1950); Ward v. Forrester Day Care, Inc., 547 So.2d 410, 411 (Ala.1989); Khirieh v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 594 So.2d 1220, 1223 (Ala. 1992).
The circuit court's final order stated:
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...ipsa loquitur doctrine allows "an inference of negligence where there is no direct evidence of negligence." Ex parte Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., 728 So.2d 155, 156 (Ala.1998). For the doctrine to apply, a plaintiff must show that: "(1) the defendant ... had full management and control ......
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...ipsa loquitur doctrine allows "an inference of negligence where there is no direct evidence of negligence." Ex parte Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., 728 So. 2d 155, 156 (Ala. 1998). For the doctrine to apply, a plaintiff must show that: "(1) the defendant ... had full management and contro......
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