Case Title: Ex Parte Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc.

Citation: 728 So. 2d 155

Docket Number: 1970203

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1998-08-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
728 So. 2d 155 (1998)
Ex parte CRABTREE INDUSTRIAL WASTE, INC., and Curtis Larry Ryals II.
(Re Richard McDaniel v. Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., and Curtis Larry Ryals II).
1970203.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
August 21, 1998.
*156 Henry T. Morrissette and Richard M. Gaal of Hand Arendall, L.L.C., Mobile, for petitioners.
Richard D. Home, Mobile, for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
We have granted certiorari review to consider whether the Court of Civil Appeals properly applied the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.
The facts of this case are set out fully in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion. McDaniel v. Crabtree Industrial Waste, Inc., 728 So. 2d 151 (Ala.Civ.App.1997). A wheel came off a moving truck and caused the plaintiff to be injured. The plaintiff filed an action against the driver and the owner of the truck. The evidence showed that no one knows what caused the wheel to come off. The plaintiff relied on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The driver of the truck testified that he had inspected the truck on the morning of the accident and had found no visible problems. The evidence shows that the wheel had been repaired by a third party only three days before the accident occurred, and there is evidence that at least two of the studs on the truck wheel had broken off at the hub.
For the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur to supply an inference of negligence where there is no direct evidence of negligence, the following test must be met:
Alabama Power Co. v. Berry, 254 Ala. 228, 236, 48 So. 2d 231, 238 (1950); Ward v. Forrester Day Care, Inc., 547 So. 2d 410, 411 (Ala.1989); Khirieh v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 594 So. 2d 1220, 1223 (Ala. 1992).
The circuit court's final order stated:
The circuit court entered a summary judgment for the defendants. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed, stating that the plaintiff's evidence "raise[d] genuine questions of material fact under his theory of recovery," the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. 728 So. 2d  at 154.
This Court finds the observations of the circuit court particularly compelling. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur may not be applied to hold the owner or the operator of a vehicle liable simply because a component of the vehicle has failed. The evidence presented would support an inference that the wheel came off as a result of negligence on the part of the third party, Mr. Carney, who repaired the tire three days before this event, and that no effects of any such negligence were visible to these defendants. The evidence could also support an inference that the studs broke with no warning, because of some materials failure or some other cause.
*158 Therefore, this Court disagrees with the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals. The record suggests that the wheel could have broken loose as a result of a materials failure in two or more of the truck's studs or as a result of negligence by the third party who had repaired the tire. Because the plaintiff failed to present substantial evidence to foreclose such possibilities as these, he did not satisfy the second element of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, according to which "the circumstances must be such that according to common knowledge and the experience of mankind the accident could not have happened if those having control of the [instrumentality] had not been negligent." Alabama Power Co. v. Berry, supra. If one can reasonably conclude that the accident could have happened without any negligence on the part of the defendants, then the res ipsa loquitur presumption does not apply. We agree with the circuit court that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur does not support an inference of negligence in this case.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals is reversed, and the cause is remanded.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON, SHORES, HOUSTON, KENNEDY, COOK, SEE, and LYONS, JJ., concur.