PATEL BY PATEL v. McIntyre

Decision Date24 August 1987
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 8:85-2595-16 through 8:85-2602-16.
Citation667 F. Supp. 1131
PartiesMona PATEL, a minor under the age of fourteen (14) years, by her General Guardian, Rasik C. PATEL; and Rasik C. Patel, Natural Father of Mona Patel, Plaintiffs, v. Denver D. McINTYRE, Executor of the Estate of James J. McIntyre, deceased; Charles R. McIntyre, Administrator C.T.A. of the Estate of Nellie Lou McIntyre, deceased; Steve Dyar, individually and/or as an agent, servant and/or employee of the Oconee County Sheriff's Department; Earl Holcombe, individually and/or in his official capacity as Sheriff of Oconee County; the County of Oconee; the South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation; the South Carolina Highway Patrol; and Walker P. Ragin, individually and/or in his official capacity as Chief Commissioner of the Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of South Carolina

Steven M. Krause, Anderson, S.C., Lee M. Weinstein, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiffs.

George L. Sands, Jr., Anderson, S.C., for D. McIntyre & Charles R. McIntyre.

Cary C. Doyle, Anderson, S.C., for other defendants.

Theron G. Cochran, Greenville, S.C., for S.C. Highways & Public Transportation & Walker P. Ragin.

ORDER

HENDERSON, District Judge.

These eight consolidated actions arise out of an automobile accident involving plaintiffs Kailash Patel, Nimita Patel, Hiren Patel, Harish Patel, Mona Patel, Pinki Patel and decedents Pravin Patel and Asha Patel, who were in one vehicle, and decedents James J. McIntyre and Nellie Lou McIntyre, who were in a second vehicle. The plaintiffs allege that on August 26, 1985, defendant Denver D. McIntyre's testate, James J. McIntyre, was driving his automobile in the wrong direction on Interstate 85 in Oconee County, South Carolina, and crashed head-on into the automobile driven by the decedent Pravin Patel. The collision killed four people, Pravin and Asha Patel and the McIntyres, and injured the remaining passengers in the Patel automobile.

The complaints further allege that defendants Steve Dyar, Earle Holcombe and the County of Oconee are liable in tort and under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the deaths of and injuries to the Patels. Defendant Dyar is an Oconee County deputy sheriff and defendant Holcombe is the Oconee County Sheriff. Defendants Dyar, Holcombe and the County of Oconee ("these defendants") have moved for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the ground that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. For the reasons set forth below, their motion is granted.

I.

Summary judgment is appropriate only when the pleadings, depositions, interrogatory answers, admissions and affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party has the burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and the court must view the evidence before it and the inferences to be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962).

The record before this Court includes the pleadings and the depositions of Steve Dyar, Layton W. Brown, Prakash V. Desai, M.D., Dr. Rajenda C. Desai, Dr. Lawrence B. Schlackter, Marvin M. Mitchell, M.D., and Susan Joseph. The record also includes the affidavits of Cash Williams, Wanda J. Rogers, Richard H. Gadsden, Sr., Wilton E. Mackey, Charlie Boseman, Becky Watson, R.M. Hammond and J.B. Rowland. The record also contains three exhibits attached to the plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to these defendants' summary judgment motion.

The facts and the inferences therefrom viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs are as follows. The record reveals that sometime between midnight and 12:25 a.m. on Monday, August 26, 1985, defendant Dyar was on duty as an Oconee County deputy sheriff and was driving his patrol car on S.C. Highway 82 approaching the Fair Play community in Oconee County, South Carolina. The weather was cloudy and rainy. At the intersection of S.C. Highways 82, 59 and 243, he saw decedent McIntyre standing in the right of way on the right side of Highway 59. McIntyre was waving his arms at Dyar, apparently to get Dyar's attention. Dyar pulled his patrol car over and saw that McIntyre was standing behind a white Cadillac which was stopped completely off the road in a muddy empty field. He saw a lone female passenger, decedent Nellie Lou McIntyre (McIntyre's wife), in the front passenger seat of the vehicle. The vehicle was somewhere between six (6) to ten (10) feet and a maximum of thirty-five (35) feet off the road with its front end headed into the field and its back end nearer the roadway of Highway 59.1 The field contained a shallow ditch or indentation in the ground which the Cadillac had apparently traversed before coming to a stop.

The record further shows that Dyar approached McIntyre and that McIntyre told Dyar he and his wife were returning from Seneca and he was not familiar with the area. He said he had "missed the sign," referring to the stop sign on Highway 59,2 and did not see well at night. Dyar did not ask McIntyre how fast he was driving or if he had been drinking. He did not ask for McIntyre's driver's license nor did he perform a license plate check on the Cadillac. Dyar testified in his deposition that McIntyre said he (McIntyre) did not see signs well at night and was scheduled to have an operation soon because of an eye problem.3 Dyar talked briefly with Mrs. McIntyre who thanked him for his offer of assistance. When McIntyre's attempt to back out of the field failed because the mud caused his tires to spin, Dyar called the Oconee County Sheriff's office dispatcher to send a wrecker. The Oconee County Sheriff's office dispatch record manifests the dispatcher called Layton Brown, a local wrecker operator, at 12:26 a.m.

Brown testified by deposition that he arrived approximately five to eight minutes after receiving the call, checked the Cadillac's tires which were undamaged and hooked his wrecker to the back end of McIntyre's Cadillac. He pulled the vehicle out of the field, across Highway 59 and into a parking space. He had a brief conversation with McIntyre when McIntyre paid him the $20 tow charge. Brown testified he was at the scene approximately ten minutes and then returned home to bed.

Both Dyar and Brown testified by deposition that McIntyre was neatly dressed, walked straight and steadily, spoke without slurring, had clear eyes, acted alert, did not smell of alcohol and exhibited no other outward signs of intoxication. Dyar performed no field sobriety tests on McIntyre other than his own observation of McIntyre during the approximately ten to fifteen minutes he had contact with McIntyre. Dyar testified he asked Mrs. McIntyre if her husband was all right and she responded that he was. Dyar spoke to Mrs. McIntyre as she sat in the front seat of the Cadillac and observed that apparently she was missing both legs. He observed no liquor bottles or other containers in the car while he talked with her but did not otherwise search or examine the vehicle. He stated the vehicle appeared to be undamaged. Dyar further testified that McIntyre told him they were going to Anderson and asked him where to get gas. Dyar told McIntyre the Cherokee Run Truck Stop on Highway 243 was the only place open for gas.4

According to Dyar's deposition, McIntyre and his wife then left heading east on Highway 243 toward the truck stop and Interstate 85. Exit 4 on I-85 is located near the Cherokee Run Truck Stop on Highway 243 and at approximately the four (4) mile marker on I-85. Dyar did not follow them; instead, he went south on Highway 59 to check the Fair Play boat ramp and the Comfort Inn parking lot and then went off duty. The Oconee County Sheriff's office duty sheet manifests Dyar went "10-42" at 12:29 a.m. Dyar explained that "10-42" meant "going off duty" and that he usually did not sign out "10-42" with the dispatcher until he was at home in his driveway. Dyar's house was approximately three-tenths (3/10) of a mile from where the McIntyres' car was stopped.

The record reveals that at approximately 1:11 a.m., two officers of the South Carolina Highway Patrol, Trooper R.M. Hammond and Trooper J.B. Rowland, received radio calls from the highway patrol dispatcher for Anderson County that a white Cadillac was heading north on I-85, a divided, controlled-access interstate highway, in the southbound lane near the eleven (11) mile marker.5 While still en route, they were informed by the dispatcher that the vehicle had collided with another vehicle at the twelve (12) mile marker. Trooper Hammond later learned from a bystander the collision had occurred at approximately 1:16 a.m. When the troopers arrived, the McIntyres' vehicle was upside down on the grass median and the McIntyres were inside the vehicle. Both troopers observed a 375 milliliter bottle of ninety (90) proof Evan-Williams Bourbon lying on the roof of the interior of the vehicle with approximately one (1) inch of liquor remaining in the bottle.6

The Anderson County Coroner, Wilton W. Mackey, stated there were two (2) dead people in the vehicle that collided with the McIntyres' Cadillac: a small child, approximately one (1) year old, and a man approximately thirty (30) years of age. The coroner pronounced the McIntyres dead at 1:50 a.m. and took their bodies in his vehicle to the Anderson Memorial Hospital.

At approximately 9:30 a.m., Charlie Boseman, a laboratory technician at the Anderson Memorial Hospital, drew fluid from the eyes of the McIntyres, put the fluid drawn from James McIntyre in a test tube, labeled it and transferred it from the morgue to the laboratory for analysis. He later followed the same procedure with...

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