Johnson v. Greater Cleveland Reg'l Transit Auth.

• Decision Date: 25 March 2021
• Docket Number: No. 109432,109432
• Citation: 171 N.E.3d 422
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals
• Parties: Deya Joyce Ann JOHNSON, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Jordan Johnson, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. GREATER CLEVELAND REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY, et al., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

171 N.E.3d 422

Deya Joyce Ann JOHNSON, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Jordan Johnson, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant,

v.GREATER CLEVELAND REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY, et al., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

No. 109432

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County.

RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: March 25, 2021

Bashein & Bashein Co., L.P.A., W. Craig Bashein and Thomas J. Sheehan, Cleveland; Paul W. Flowers Co., L.P.A., Paul W. Flowers and Louis E. Grube, Cleveland, for appellee/cross-appellant.

Gallagher Sharp L.L.P., Joseph W. Pappalardo and Richard C.O. Rezie ; Keith A. Ganther, Acting Deputy General Counsel-Litigation, and Sheryl King Benford, General Counsel-Deputy Counsel for Legal Affairs, for appellants/cross-appellees.

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

EILEEN A. GALLAGHER, J.:

{¶ 1} Defendants-appellants/cross-appellees the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority ("GCRTA") and Gary Williams ("Williams") (collectively, "appellants") appeal the trial court's denial of their motions for summary judgment. Appellants argue that they have statutory immunity under R.C. 2744.02(A) and 2744.03(A)(6) from the wrongful death, survivorship and loss of consortium claims brought by plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant Deya Joyce Ann Johnson ("Deya"), individually and as administrator of the estate of Jordan Johnson, deceased ("appellee"), arising out of the death of her son, Jordan Johnson ("Jordan"), in a June 20, 2016 motorcycle accident (the "accident"). Appellee contends that Williams negligently, wantonly or recklessly operated a GCRTA bus and caused her son's motorcycle accident. She cross-appeals the trial court's denial of her motion for partial summary judgment on liability against GCRTA, arguing that there is no genuine issue of material fact that Williams was negligent per se based on his violation of R.C. 4511.42(A) and Cleveland Codified Ordinances ("C.C.O.") 431.17, by failing to yield the right of way to Jordan's motorcycle.

{¶ 2} For the reasons that follow, we find that there are genuine issues of material fact as to whether Williams was negligent in operating the bus. We, therefore, affirm the trial court's denial of GCRTA's motion for summary judgment based on statutory immunity. However, we find that there is no genuine issue of material fact that Williams did not act wantonly or recklessly in operating the bus. We, therefore, reverse the trial court's denial of Williams’ motion for summary judgment based on statutory immunity. We dismiss appellee's cross-appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

Procedural and Factual Background

{¶ 3} On the evening of June 20, 2016, at approximately 9:50 p.m., 19-year-old Jordan was operating a 1997 Honda motorcycle northbound on Bellaire Road in Cleveland. Deya was the registered owner of the motorcycle. She testified that Jordan had purchased the motorcycle five or six weeks before the accident and that he had obtained a temporary motorcycle license shortly before he purchased the motorcycle.

{¶ 4} Jordan was returning home after a summer league basketball game in which he, his twin brother Lawrynce Johnson ("Lawrynce"), and a close friend, Richard Stokes ("Stokes"), had played that evening at Ohio Sports Net, a sports complex on W. 130th Street in Parma. Tatiana Rosa ("Rosa"), Lawrynce's then-girlfriend, was driving Lawrynce and Stokes home in her vehicle, a white 2009 Honda Accord. Lawrynce was in the front passenger seat and Stokes was in the rear passenger seat behind Lawrynce. The road was dry, and there were no weather-related issues.

{¶ 5} Williams, a GCRTA bus operator for over 26 years, was operating a passenger bus owned by GCRTA. The bus had been traveling southbound on Bellaire Road but had stopped, with its left turn signal activated, at a red traffic light at the intersection of Bellaire Road and Leeila Avenue, intending to make a left turn onto Leeila Avenue.

{¶ 6} An unidentified vehicle, traveling northbound on Bellaire Road, was also stopped at the traffic light (the "unidentified vehicle" or the "stopped vehicle"). Its turn signal was not activated. When the light turned green, Williams moved the bus forward into the intersection. Although it also had a green light, the stopped vehicle did not proceed through the intersection on the green light. Instead, it "flashed" its high beams at the bus, then kept on its high beams, which Williams interpreted as signaling the bus that it should proceed with its left turn. Williams testified that after the stopped vehicle flashed its high beams, he "started the bus into motion" and began making the left turn onto Leeila Avenue. He indicated that he was proceeding cautiously, traveling at a speed of two or three m.p.h. "at the most," because he "couldn't see around the high beams" and "couldn't get a sharp view on the right side" of the stopped vehicle.

{¶ 7} Bellaire Road has a posted speed limit of 35 m.p.h. As the bus was proceeding with his left turn, Jordan's motorcycle was traveling northbound through the intersection on the right side of the stopped vehicle.¹ Appellee alleges that the bus encroached on the motorcycle's lane of travel and that the motorcycle accelerated and swerved right as it went through the intersection on the green light to avoid colliding with the bus. Williams stopped the bus in the middle of the left turn, before it made contact with the motorcycle. Shortly after passing through the intersection, Jordan lost control of the motorcycle. The motorcycle struck the concrete curb on the right side of Bellaire Road, and Jordan was ejected from the motorcycle, suffering fatal injuries.

{¶ 8} Rosa testified that, as she approached the intersection of Bellaire Road and Leeila Avenue, Jordan's motorcycle was four or five car lengths ahead in the right lane. She indicated that her vehicle and the motorcycle were traveling at approximately the same speed, i.e., "25, 27 [m.p.h.] maybe," as they approached the intersection. Rosa testified that when she first noticed the bus, it was already turning left into the intersection and that it was turning "slowly," "maybe like 10 miles, 15 miles an hour." Rosa stated that the motorcycle entered the intersection on a green light, that the bus turned left into the path of Jordan's motorcycle and that the two vehicles were "close together" as the motorcycle entered the intersection. Rosa testified that the motorcycle swerved right in an attempt to avoid the bus and that "[h]is whole motor vehicle spun out and he fell off of his motor vehicle." Rosa could not say whether Jordan sped up in an attempt to avoid colliding with the bus once the motorcycle entered the intersection, but claimed that, before the motorcycle entered the intersection, it was not speeding. Rosa stated that the bus completed its turn in front of her vehicle, then left the scene.

{¶ 9} Lawrynce testified that when Rosa's vehicle and the motorcycle turned onto Bellaire Road from W. 130th Street, Jordan, who was wearing a motorcycle helmet with a nighttime visor, was, at first, driving his motorcycle in the left lane, then moved over into the right lane in front of Rosa's vehicle. Lawrynce testified that the motorcycle was approximately three car lengths ahead of Rosa's vehicle when it passed through the intersection. Lawrynce claimed that Rosa's vehicle was traveling at a speed of 35 m.p.h. as she proceeded down Bellaire Road "[b]ecause she doesn't go over the speed limit," but acknowledged that he did not look at the speedometer.

{¶ 10} Lawrynce testified that the light was green as Jordan's motorcycle passed through the intersection, that the bus turned left in front of the motorcycle and that the motorcycle sped up and swerved to avoid making contact with the bus. Lawrynce estimated that the motorcycle was traveling between 35-40 m.p.h. at the time of the accident. Lawrynce testified that after the motorcycle struck the curb, Jordan attempted to regain control of the motorcycle but was unsuccessful. Lawrynce stated that the bus completed its turn onto Leeila Avenue before Rosa's car cleared the intersection. The bus stopped to let people off at the bus stop on Leeila Avenue and then was "gone."

{¶ 11} Stokes testified that Jordan had been operating the motorcycle for "[a]t least three months" at the time of the accident. He testified that when they first began traveling on Bellaire Road, Jordan's motorcycle was in the left lane, Rosa's vehicle was in the right lane and the two vehicles were traveling at approximately the same speed, i.e., 35 m.p.h. Stokes testified that he could see the speedometer in Rosa's vehicle from the backseat and saw that she was "going about 35," "maybe a little over * * * maybe 35, 40. Not too much." With respect to the speed of the motorcycle, Stokes stated that Jordan "was right in front of us, we were going 35 so he couldn't have been going no more than 40."

{¶ 12} Stokes testified that as the vehicles traveled along Bellaire Road, a vehicle was stopped ahead in the left lane with its left turn signal activated. To get around the stopped vehicle, the motorcycle moved over into the right lane in front of Rosa's vehicle. Stokes indicated that this occurred "maybe a thousand feet" before the intersection of Bellaire Road and Leeila Avenue.

{¶ 13} Because "he had to get over to the other lane," Stokes estimated that the motorcycle was traveling "maybe a little faster than us" as it approached the intersection with Leeila Avenue, "maybe 35, 40" m.p.h. However, he testified that before the bus turned in front of the motorcycle, he believed that both vehicles were traveling the speed limit. Stokes testified that Rosa's car was "right behind" the motorcycle, "[p]robably a car-and-a-half" behind the motorcycle, when it passed through the intersection. He stated that the motorcycle entered the intersection on the green light and that the bus then turned left into the path of the motorcycle, crossing over both the left lane and part of the...