Quarles v. Tenn. Steel Haulers, Inc.
| Decision Date | 20 February 2019 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 2:17-CV-308-WKW [WO] |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
| Parties | LAURA QUARLES, as the Administratrix of the Estate of Gregory Quarles, Plaintiff, v. TENNESSEE STEEL HAULERS, INC.; JOSHUA L. FAIRCLOTH; PEDRO H. FERNANDEZ; and TRANS TEXAS EXPRESS, INC., Defendants. |
One night in 2017, there were two car accidents near Exit 11 on Interstate 85 in Montgomery. The first accident was at 5:50 p.m. in a southbound lane; the second was at 8:31 p.m. in a northbound lane. This case is about whether the first accident proximately caused the second. It did not. Defendants Pedro Fernandez and Trans Texas Express, Inc. are thus entitled to summary judgment.
The court has subject-matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. (Doc. # 32.) The parties do not dispute personal jurisdiction or venue.
To succeed on a motion for summary judgment, the moving party must show that "there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The court views the evidence, and all reasonable inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Jean-Baptiste v. Gutierrez, 627 F.3d 816, 820 (11th Cir. 2010).
A party seeking summary judgment "always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for the motion." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986). This responsibility includes identifying the parts of the record that show there is no genuine dispute of material fact. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1). A movant who does not bear a trial burden of production may also assert, without citing the record, that the nonmoving party "cannot produce admissible evidence to support" a material fact. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1)(B).
If the moving party meets its burden, then the nonmoving party must present evidence of a genuine dispute of material fact. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324. A genuine dispute of material fact exists when the nonmoving party produces evidence allowing a reasonable fact-finder to return a verdict in its favor. Waddell v. Valley Forge Dental Assocs., 276 F.3d 1275, 1279 (11th Cir. 2001); see Ellis v. England, 432 F.3d 1321, 1326 (11th Cir. 2005) ().
Interstate 85 is a main thoroughfare in Montgomery, Alabama. I-85 Southtakes drivers past downtown Montgomery to an interchange with Interstate 65. I-85 North goes toward Atlanta. Around Exit 11 (also called the Chantilly Exit or the Mitylene Exit) in Montgomery, there are two lanes in each direction. A wide, grassy median separates northbound from southbound traffic.1 On January 31, 2017, there were two major accidents near Exit 11. The first resulted in an overturned tractor-trailer. The second resulted in the tragic death of Gregory Quarles.
On January 31, Pedro Fernandez was hauling lumber on behalf of his employer, Trans Texas Express, Inc. He was headed south on I-85. Walter Griffin was driving a pickup truck in the same direction. At 5:50 p.m., the passenger side of Fernandez's trailer collided with the driver's side of Griffin's pickup. The court assumes (without deciding) that Fernandez and Trans Texas are legally responsible for that collision. (Doc. # 1-8, at 2; Doc. # 70, at 7-32.)
The collision caused Fernandez's tractor-trailer to overturn into the median, which in turn caused the lumber on Fernandez's truck to spill into the median. Police officers and the fire department responded to the accident. The city also sent workers to pick up the lumber in the median. (Doc. # 73, at 42, 50; Doc. # 75-6, at 2.)
Two hours and forty-one minutes after Fernandez overturned, city workers were still picking up lumber in the median. Police cars were still on the scene. Flashing lights — yellow ones on the cleanup crew's trucks, blue ones on the police cars — illuminated the area. (Doc. # 1-5, at 2; Doc. # 75-6, at 2.)
Traffic had backed up in both directions. Plaintiff concedes that "there were no obstructions" in either northbound lane. (Doc. # 75, at 10.) There is, after all, no evidence of any debris on I-85 North. Nor is there evidence that, at 8:31 p.m., the cleanup crew or emergency vehicles blocked either northbound lane. Nor is there evidence anyone told northbound drivers to avoid the left lane. Instead, one driver testified that he did not see anything blocking northbound traffic. (Doc. # 73, at 48-50.) But for some reason — maybe a blend of caution and gawking — northbound traffic was consolidated into the right lane. It was crawling along at just ten to fifteen miles an hour. (Doc. # 73, at 43-45, 50-52; Doc. # 75, at 7; Doc. # 75-6, at 2.)
George Randall was driving a tractor-trailer on I-85 North when he got stuck in this traffic jam. Gregory Quarles was driving a Jeep immediately behind Randall. Joshua Faircloth, who was driving a tractor-trailer for Tennessee Steel Haulers, Inc., was right behind Quarles. Randall and Quarles slowed down for traffic. Tragically, Faircloth did not. He instead plowed into Quarles at high speed — possibly at sixty-five miles an hour. The collision hurled Quarles's Jeep into the back of Randall'stractor-trailer. Quarles died instantly from blunt-force trauma, and his car burst into flames. (Doc. # 73, at 44-46, 55, 59-60.)
There does not appear to be a reason Faircloth did not slow down or stop. The weather was clear. The road was dry. His brakes worked. Nothing blocked his view. He was not distracted by the cleanup crew. He somehow did not react to the flashing lights even though other drivers clearly did. (Doc. # 73, at 59-60.)
In April 2017, Plaintiff Laura Quarles (the administrator of Gregory Quarles's estate) filed this wrongful death action against Fernandez, Trans Texas, Griffin, Faircloth, and Tennessee Steel Haulers in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama. (Doc. # 1-1.) Plaintiff claims Defendants were negligent and wanton in violation of Alabama common law. (Doc. # 1-1, at 4-7.)
Defendants invoked diversity jurisdiction and removed the case from state court. (Doc. # 1.) Both Plaintiff and Griffin are Alabamians, which would normally keep the court from exercising diversity jurisdiction. But the court found that there was "no possibility" Griffin proximately caused Quarles's death. (Doc. # 32, at 8, 11.) And because Griffin could not be liable to Plaintiff, the court dismissed him as "fraudulently joined" and did not remand the case to state court. (Doc. # 37.)2
Fernandez and Trans Texas now move for summary judgment. (Doc. # 71.) They argue that just as Griffin could not be liable to Plaintiff, neither are they liable to Plaintiff. The motion has been fully briefed. (Docs. # 72, 73, 75, 80.) Fernandez and Trans Texas also move to strike some evidence Plaintiff submitted in opposition to summary judgment. (Doc. # 76.)
To prevail on either a negligence claim or a wantonness claim, Plaintiff must show that Fernandez and Trans Texas proximately caused Quarles's death. Martin v. Arnold, 643 So. 2d 564, 567 (Ala. 1994) (). The undisputed material facts show that Plaintiff cannot meet that burden.
In legal terms, "the proximate cause of an injury is that cause which, in the natural and probable sequence of events, and without the intervention or coming in of some new or independent cause, produces the injury, and without which the injury would not have occurred." Ala. Power Co. v. Moore, 899 So. 2d 975, 979 (Ala. 2004) (cleaned up); see also, e.g., Thetford v. City of Clanton, 605 So. 2d 835, 840 (Ala. 1992) (). An intervening or independent causeis something that breaks the chain of causation, thus making the defendant's action no longer the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. Moore, 899 So. 2d at 979. To break the causal chain, however, an intervening cause "must (1) occur after the defendant's [wrongful] act, (2) be unforeseeable to the defendant at the time he acts, and (3) be sufficient to be the sole cause-in-fact of the plaintiff's injury." Prill v. Marrone, 23 So. 3d 1, 6 (Ala. 2009) (cleaned up).
In more practical terms, "proximate cause hinges on foreseeability." Springer v. Jefferson Cty., 595 So. 2d 1381, 1384 (Ala. 1992); see Vines v. Plantation Motor Lodge, 336 So. 2d 1338, 1339 (Ala. 1976) (). To be foreseeable, harm must be more than merely possible. Moore, 899 So. 2d at 979. Instead, the proximate cause doctrine looks at the probability of harm and determines whether the defendant should be legally responsible for the plaintiff's injury. Id. That is usually a question for the jury. Id. But if there are no disputed material facts, and if no reasonable juror could find that the defendant proximately caused the plaintiff's injury, courts decide proximate cause. Id. at 980; Prill, 23 So. 3d at 12.
Precedent illustrates this doctrine. In City of Mobile v. Havard, for example, an overloaded soybean truck with defective brakes rear-ended a car in a tunnel. 268 So. 2d 805, 806-07, 809 (Ala. 1972). Gasoline fires broke out, but the firefighting equipment in the tunnel was allegedly either defective and inadequate, and the driver who was rear-ended died of severe burns. The driver's estate sued the engineeringfirm responsible for inspecting the tunnel's firefighting equipment, and a jury delivered a verdict for the plaintiff. Id. at 807. But the Alabama Supreme...
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