Recent Blog Posts
Third Party Liability in the New Economy
Several months ago, a leading presidential candidate discussed the emergence of the so-called “gig economy” and its impact on the American capitalist system. These comments came shortly after the release of a 2014 study which found that one in three American workers are freelancers.
This development has significant implications in labor law, as the National Labor Relations Act states that only employees have the right to collectively bargain on issues like wages and benefits. This development also has a bearing on truck crashes and other negligence cases, because the question of “employee or contractor?” is becoming more difficult to answer.
Elements of Respondeat Superior
This third party liability theory applies when a tortfeasor (negligent person) is an employee acting within the course and scope of employment. In such an instance, the employer is liable for the plaintiff’s economic and non-economic damages.
Violent Crash Outside San Antonio
A vicious car wreck on the Northwest Side, in which one car hit another one head-on, left a man dead and a woman clinging to life at a local hospital.
According to police, a woman in a Dodge Caravan was traveling westbound on Highway 1604 between the Bandera and Hausman exits, when she drifted over the grassy median and directly into the path of an oncoming Honda Civic. The man behind the wheel was unable to avoid the collision, and when the two vehicles met, he was killed instantly. Bystanders attempted to revive the man by performing CPR, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The woman was badly injured and transported to University Hospital, where she was placed in the intensive care ward. Police have yet to determine a cause for the crash.
Wrong-Way Collisions
This is the term that traffic safety experts use to describe head-on wrecks that occur on a multi-lane divided highway, like Loop 1604. These types of wrecks are quite rare (about 3 percent of the total) but they have a fatality rate up to 27 times that of normal car crashes, making wrong-way wrecks the most dangerous type of vehicle collision. Nearly all these crashes take place on rural and semi-rural roads. Some of the most prominent contributing causes to these cashes include:
Not My Fault
Liability in a car crash is not always clear cut. For example, a freeway crash might occur on a rural road when the defendant crosses the centerline and the plaintiff is speeding. Or, two delivery trucks may collide when the defendant stops in the middle of traffic and the plaintiff makes an unsafe lane change. In situations like these, Texas law empowers the jurors to become mathematicians, in addition to factfinders. The Lone Star State is a modified comparative fault state, with a twist, in terms of contributory negligence. Plaintiffs may recover a portion of their damages depending on their percentage of fault.
How It Plays Out
In the first example above, assume that the jury determines damages to be $10,000 and the plaintiff to be 40 percent at fault, because the vehicle was traveling too fast to see the defendant and respond to a somewhat predictable emergency situation; on rural roads, it is not unheard of for cars to travel on the left side of the road, for one reason or another. So, the plaintiff would recover $6,000 (60 percent of $10,000).
Caught On Tape
A worker at a nursing home in Converse is in custody facing charges related to nursing home abuse because of video obtained from a surveillance camera hidden in the resident’s room.
Police stated that the 77-year-old victim’s daughter installed the motion-activated “granny cam” in her room after the elderly woman, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, had injuries on her body that she could not explain. The camera later recorded footage of the 51-year-old worker slapping the victim on her face, striking her body, and flinging her onto the bed. In a subsequent written report, the female worker claimed that the victim fell.
In a statement, the nursing home manager insisted that the abuse was an isolated incident and that the facility was cooperating with investigators.
Granny Cams
Texas is one of only four states (the others are Washington, Oklahoma, and New Mexico) that allows the use of hidden cameras in care facilities; the Lone Star State enacted an enabling law in 2001. These devices must comply with very specific conditions, such as:
“Sprawling” Workers’ Compensation Fraud Case in North Texas
Federal prosecutors in Dallas charged 28 federal employees and private doctors with over $8.7 million in a workers’ compensation fraud case.
According to court documents, the workers claimed they were injured on the job, the doctors fraudulently diagnosed the injuries, and claims officials received bribes and kickbacks in exchange for the approval of the disputed claims. Under the law, these workers would have been entitled to as much as 75 percent of their wages, in addition to reimbursement for medical expenses, prescription drugs, and other out-of-pocket costs. Prosecutors claim that an additional $11 million in claims might have been paid had the “sprawling corruption scheme” not been exposed.
Each of the defendants has agreed to plead guilty and each may receive up to 15 years in prison.
Employer Workers’ Compensation Fraud
Cases such as this one nearly always receive widespread media attention, fueling the myth that cheating workers routinely defraud the system. But the reality is actually far different.
Fatal Pile-Up Crash in Rural Bexar County
Two people are dead following a head-on crash in eastern Bexar County that involved five vehicles, including a school bus.
Investigators state that a Toyota was initially seen weaving on Loop 1604 just north of Highway 87, not far from Adkins. The vehicle then clipped an East Central I.S.D. bus before slamming head-on into a Honda. Both drivers were killed almost instantly; a passenger in the Toyota survived for several days before succumbing to his injuries. All the victims were described as teenagers.
Two other passenger vehicles were involved in the pile-up crash as well, but none of the occupants were seriously injured.
Head-On Crashes
Statistically, these incidents are extremely rare (about 3 percent of vehicle crashes) but they have a fatality rate 12 times greater than other freeway wrecks. That is primarily due to the massive force involved. If two vehicles collide that are each traveling 60 mph, the occupants are subjected to a sudden force of 120 mph.
Loopholes
There are a number of rented vehicles, especially self-service moving trucks, on the streets and highways of South Central Texas. These trucks are often involved in car crashes, because the drivers are inexperienced and the vehicles would normally require a commercial drivers’ license. In these instances, federal law makes it difficult, but not impossible, for the victim to sue the vehicle’s owner, in addition to the negligent driver.
The Graves Amendment
In the 1990s and early 2000s, a number of states passed vicarious liability laws that applied to vehicle lessors. These laws essentially mirrored the elements of respondeat superior, by declaring that the vehicle owner was legally liable for damages caused by a vehicle lessee, at least in some cases.
Rather predictably, the vehicle rental industry strongly opposed these laws. Resistance stiffened after a Connecticut jury returned a multi-milliondollar verdict against a leasing company which then announced plans to cease doing business in the state. So, in 2005, Congress included 49 U.S.C. 30106, the “Graves Amendment,” as a last-minute attachment to an omnibus bill. There is almost no legislative history backing up the Amendment: no hearings were ever conducted and there was less than a half- hour of floor debate.
No Signal Yet
Local residents claim a serious car crash would not have taken place had Bexar County followed through on its commitment to erect a traffic signal at a dangerous intersection on the Northwest Side.
The latest crash at the intersection of Blanco Road (F.M. 2696) and Slumber Pass killed one person and sent two others to the hospital. The male driver of one car was killed and two female passengers in the other car were injured. About a year ago, the county earmarked nearly $145,000 to put up a signal and hired a contractor to do so, but construction has yet to begin. The Bexar County Director of Public Works stated that “a year doesn’t sound like it’s quick, but it takes that long to get equipment sometimes.” The DPW added that the driver was allegedly speeding and serving and so a traffic signal would not have prevented the crash.
The county says the signal is expected to be installed in the next two weeks and to be functional by mid-December.
Three-Vehicle Pinball Crash in San Antonio
A runaway ambulance rear-ended a woman sitting at a stoplight in the Northeast Side, sending her to the hospital with serious injuries.
The crash took place at the intersection of Sunshadow and Perrin Beitel Road. After it slammed into her car, the ambulance continued going forward until it smacked into a traffic light pole. Meanwhile, the force of the collision propelled the woman’s vehicle into the intersection and into the path of an SUV making a left turn. The SUV driver was unable to avoid a collision, and the vehicle spun several times before eventually coming to rest against a utility pole.
Aside from the woman, no other injuries were reported.
Third Party Liability
Normally, when a commercial vehicle like a tractor-trailer, delivery truck, or taxicab is involved in a crash, the employer is liable for damages under the theory of respondeat superior. However, when an emergency vehicle is involved, the plaintiff may need to prove additional facts.
The Burden of Proof
In one of the more notorious trials of the 1990s, a popular actor and former football star was tried for a double murder that occurred not far from his home in California. While a criminal jury found the man not guilty of murder, a civil jury ordered him to pay $25 million following a subsequent wrongful death lawsuit. The man’s moral guilt or innocence is not really relevant to the discussion at hand: the point is that the burden of proof is much lower in a civil proceeding like a car crash case than in a criminal or family law case.
Civil Case
In nearly all negligence cases, the plaintiff must prove liability by a preponderance of the evidence, which means “more likely than not.” Some people use the analogy of the scales of justice that tip in one direction or the other. But a more accurate image is to picture two equally-full glasses of water sitting side by side. If a person adds one drop to the glass on the right, it contains more water than the glass on the left.
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