Opinion ID: 160983
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Vicarious Liability/Respondeat Superior

Text: Plaintiff alleges that because Mullins was in exclusive control of the truck and the accident was of a type that would not ordinarily occur in the absence of some sort of negligence on the part of the driver of the truck, she has made out a prima facie case of Mullins’s negligence under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. As a result, plaintiff claims, she is not required to put forth evidence establishing specific acts of negligence. Even if the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur does not apply, plaintiff alleges, there is sufficient evidence to establish that Mullins fell asleep at the wheel while driving the truck through the construction zone. According to plaintiff, Mullins was thereby negligent in operating the truck, because he knew or should have known that he had an increased risk of falling asleep while driving. Under this 2 (...continued) drawn.” Mireles v. Broderick , 872 P.2d 863, 866 (N.M. 1994). -4- theory, plaintiff does not dispute the findings in the autopsy report that the cause of Mullins’s death was ventricular fibrillation of the heart resulting in sudden cardiac arrest. Instead, plaintiff disputes whether it was the sudden cardiac arrest that caused Mullins to lose control of the truck in the first place. Plaintiff’s theory is that (1) Mullins suffered from sleep apnea; 3 (2) as a result of fatigue associated with sleep apnea, Mullins fell asleep while driving the truck through the construction zone; (3) Mullins then lost control of the truck and the truck swerved to the left striking Martinez; and (4) at some point after he fell asleep, Mullins suffered a sleep apnea episode whereupon he stopped breathing and went into ventricular fibrillation as a result of a combination of a lack of oxygen and his underlying cardiac illnesses. 4 As an alternative theory of both causation and liability, plaintiff alleges that Mullins was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident as required by 49 C.F.R. § 392.16 and that his negligent failure to wear a seat belt was a proximate 3 Sleep apnea is a disorder in which breathing during sleep stops for ten seconds or longer, usually more than twenty times an hour, causing measurable blood deoxygenation. See The Merck Manual , § 14 at 1415 (17th ed.). 4 In support of her sleep apnea claim, plaintiff has submitted medical records and questionnaires indicating that Mullins had been diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea in 1996 and that he had complained of daytime fatigue in the past as a result of his sleep apnea. -5- cause of the accident. 5 Under this theory, even if Mullins did suffer sudden cardiac arrest before he lost control of the truck, plaintiff alleges that the use of a seatbelt would have restrained Mullins’s body after he became incapacitated and that this would have prevented the truck from suddenly veering to the left and striking Martinez.