Lee v. Small
| Decision Date | 22 November 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. C 10–4034–MWB.,C 10–4034–MWB. |
| Citation | 829 F.Supp.2d 728 |
| Parties | John Owen LEE, Plaintiff, v. Seth T. SMALL, Individually, and Gregory Toft, Individually and doing business as Toft & Sons Farm, Defendants,Seth T. Small, Counterclaim Plaintiff, v. John Owen Lee, Counterclaim Defendant.Seth T. Small, Third–Party Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant, v. Llewellyn Brown, Third–Party Defendant/Counterclaim Plaintiff. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Dennis M. McElwain, Smith & McElwain, Sioux City, IA, William K. Klinker, Smith, Grigg, Shea, Klinker & Queck, Primghar, IA, for Plaintiff.
Joseph D. Thornton, Smith Peterson Law Firm, LLP, Council Bluffs, IA, Sean J. Barry, Richard J. Barry, Montgomery, Barry & Bovee, Spencer, IA, for Defendants.
Two nighttime collisions in quick succession between a tractor pulling farm equipment across a bridge and oncoming passenger vehicles have brought this diversity action before me on pretrial evidentiary motions. While many of the issues presented are appropriate pretrial challenges to admissibility of evidence, some are dispositive motions dressed up as mere challenges to the admissibility of evidence at trial. Nevertheless, the expeditious resolution of the case requires me to address all of the issues on the footing presented.
The following factual background is gleaned from the pleadings and the parties' statements of facts in their evidentiary motions.1 Late in the evening on November 13, 2009, hours after sunset, Seth T. Small, a farm hand employed by Toft & Sons Farm, was driving a large farm tractor pulling an even wider implement known as a disc ripper or chisel plow westbound on Highway 18, near Spencer in Clay County, Iowa. There appears to be no dispute that Small had the “field lights” on the tractor turned on, but that the implement he was towing was unlit. There also appears to be no dispute that the implement extended well across the center line of the highway. The parties dispute whether the “field lights” blinded oncoming drivers.
Small attempted to cross a bridge, approximately 500 feet long, over the Little Sioux River a few miles east of Spencer. Other parties involved in the incident on November 13, 2009, contend that, at that point, less than a car's width remained between the implement that Small was towing and the guardrail of the bridge on the eastbound side of the bridge. When Small was about 100 feet onto the bridge, an eastbound vehicle, driven by Llewellyn Brown, approached and collided with the implement. Brown's vehicle was eventually deflected down the embankment into the north ditch where it struck a tree. Brown alleges that he suffered physical injuries and physical and mental pain and incurred medical expenses and damages to person and property as a result of this first collision.
Small stopped the tractor, either just before or as a result of the first collision. Just after Small, who was an emergency medical technician (EMT), climbed down from the cab of the tractor, intending to render aid to the driver of the vehicle involved in the first collision, a second eastbound vehicle, driven by John Owen Lee, collided with the tractor and implement and also struck Small. Small and Lee each allege that they suffered physical injuries, mental and physical pain and suffering, loss of function of mind and body, and other damages as a result of this second collision.
Somewhat more specifically—because his history of medical treatment is relevant to some of the motions in limine—Lee suffered a fractured left scapula, broken ribs, a lung contusion, and various abrasions. He was taken by ambulance to Spencer Hospital, but was soon transferred to Sanford Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On November 18, 2009, while still at Sanford Health Center, Lee was diagnosed with a staphylococcus infection that eventually caused respiratory and renal failure and required a tracheostomy and mechanical ventilation over the next six weeks. Lee was eventually transferred from Sanford Health Center to Bethesda Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 11, 2010, then to Bayshore Health Center in Duluth, Minnesota, on January 22, 2010. On March 15, 2010, he was transferred again to an assisted living facility in Duluth, where he resided until his release on December 1, 2010. He alleges that he incurred expenses for hospitalizations and medical care as a result of the November 13, 2009, in excess of $600,000. Lee had private group health insurance in effect at the time of the collision and, effective December 1, 2009, he became eligible for and received Medicare coverage. Thus, his medical expenses have been paid, at least in part, by his private insurance and Medicare. The parties dispute the extent to which Lee's medical expenses were compromised and reduced by agreements between his providers and his insurer and Medicare and the precise amount ultimately paid for his care.
On April 28, 2010, Lee, the driver of the vehicle involved in the second collision, filed a Complaint (docket no. 2) initiating this action, based on diversity of citizenship, naming as defendants Small and Gregory Toft, individually and doing business as Toft & Sons Farm, as Small's employer and the owner of the tractor and implement that Small was towing. Lee asserts that the defendants were negligent in various respects and that their negligence caused his injuries. On May 20, 2010, the defendants filed a joint Answer (docket no. 4), denying Lee's negligence claim.
On May 27, 2010, Small filed a separate Counterclaim And Third–Party Complaint (docket no. 5), alleging, inter alia, that “[t]he combined negligence of John Owen Lee and Llewellyn Brown was a proximate cause of the accident and the injuries sustained by Seth T. Small” on November 13, 2009. Counterclaim And Third–Party Complaint, Counterclaim at ¶ 5 and Third–Party Complaint at ¶ 6. Small asserted a counterclaim for negligence against Lee, the driver of the vehicle involved in the second collision, and a third-party claim for...
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