Court Opinion

ID: 9614743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:27:52.16934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:38.580424
License: Public Domain

Judge BECTON
concurring in the result.
Ordinarily, neither a momentary driving miscalculation nor mere inadvertence should expose a person to punitive damages. In this case, however, plaintiff produced evidence from which the jury could have concluded that defendant’s erratic driving for an extended period of time exceeded simple negligence and was in reckless disregard of the rights of others and, therefore, wanton. For example, one witness entered U.S. 1 behind the tractor-trailer at the Merry Oaks exit and continued following it North to the New Hill exit. Although there were “right many places” for cars and trucks to pull off onto the shoulders of the road, the truck driver did not do so. Rather, according to the witness, “[t]he truck meandered all over the highway from shoulder to shoulder, ditch to ditch. It continued in the southbound lane in a northerly direction for at least a quarter of a mile or more. It just went back and forth all over the road.” Later, when there were more than just two lanes, the witness passed the truck but continued to watch it in his mirror. Still later, the witness saw the truck cross the center line again. Defendant’s truck crashed into two cars, not one car. When it struck the first car, “[t]he nose of the truck was completely across the yellow line . . . , and its right rear tires were on the yellow line. Its front tires were completely across the yellow lines.”
Believing that the punitive damages issue should have been submitted to the jury, I concur.