Payne v. Schneider Nat'l Carriers Inc., CIVIL NO. 09-559-GPM

• Decision Date: 26 April 2011
• Docket Number: Consolidated with: CIVIL NO. 10-258-GPM,CIVIL NO. 09-559-GPM
• Parties: DAVID PAYNE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SCHNEIDER NATIONAL CARRIERS, INC., et al., Defendants/Cross-Claim Plaintiffs/ Cross-Claim Defendants. JEFF FOSTER TRUCKING, INC., Third-Party Plaintiff, v. DALE STUMBO, Third-Party Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois

DAVID PAYNE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SCHNEIDER NATIONAL CARRIERS, INC., et al., Defendants/Cross-Claim Plaintiffs/ Cross-Claim Defendants.

JEFF FOSTER TRUCKING, INC., Third-Party Plaintiff, v. DALE STUMBO, Third-Party Defendant.

CIVIL NO. 09-559-GPM

Consolidated with: CIVIL NO. 10-258-GPM

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

DATED: April 26, 2011

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MURPHY, District Judge:

This matter is before the Court on a motion in limine brought by Cross-Claim Plaintiff Schneider International Carriers, Inc. ("Schneider") (Doc. 179). This case arises out of a major traffic accident that occurred on April 21, 2009, on Interstate 57 in Franklin County, Illinois, near the town of Benton. According to Illinois State Policeman Robert Ventura, Jr., a certified accident reconstructionist who performed an investigation of the accident giving rise to this case, the accident was a so-called "chain reaction" collision that happened approximately as follows. Plaintiff David Payne was traveling north on Interstate 57 when he was obliged to stop on thehighway due to road construction. According to Ventura, to Payne's south a northbound semi-truck owned and operated by Defendant/Cross-Claim Plaintiff/Cross-Claim Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff Jeff Foster Trucking, Inc. ("Jeff Foster"), then struck a semi-truck owned and operated by Teton Transportation, Inc. ("Teton"), from the rear. Ventura posits that the impact of the collision between the Jeff Foster truck and the Teton truck propelled the latter truck into the rear of a semi-truck owned and operated by Schneider, with the result that the Schneider truck struck David Payne's vehicle from behind. Currently Schneider is pursuing a claim against Jeff Foster for the damage to Schneider's truck caused by the April 2009 accident.

The driver of Jeff Foster's truck at the time of the April 2009 accident, Lawrence Rich, died in a post-collision fire. A report on Rich's death was prepared by Martin Leffler, the coroner of Franklin County. Leffler's report suggests, based on information furnished to Leffler by police at the accident scene, that the sequence of collisions in the accident was different from the sequence of collisions set out in Ventura's report on the accident. According to Leffler, Schneider's truck first hit Payne's car, then Teton's truck hit Schneider's truck and was hit in turn by Jeff Foster's truck:

Traffic accident on Interstate 57 Northbound near mile marker 74 1/2, just North of the Northbound rest area. Three semi-trucks and a Chevrolet Avalanche were involved. First semi and Chevrolet Avalanche got together, then the second semi ran into the rear of the first semi, and then the third semi ran into the back of semi number two.

Doc. 106-8 at 1. Additionally, some handwritten notes apparently made by Leffler at the accident scene state, "Vehicle # 1 [Schneider's truck] was struck by Vehicle # 2 [Teton's truck] and Vehicle # 3 [Jeff Foster's truck] crashed into Vehicle # 2[.]" Doc. 179-1 at 5. Jeff Foster concedes that Leffler's opinions about the sequence of the April 2009 accident are hearsay...