Tracy Morgan sues Wal-Mart for crash that killed 1

MSN (AP) ^ | 7/12/2014 | AP

[South40]

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Tracy Morgan has sued Wal-Mart over last month's highway crash that seriously injured him and killed a fellow comedian.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, claims Wal-Mart was negligent when a driver of one of its tractor-trailers rammed into Morgan's limousine van. The complaint claims the retail giant should have known the driver had been awake for over 24 hours, and that his commute of 700 miles from his home in Georgia to work in Delaware was "unreasonable." It also alleges the driver fell asleep at the wheel.

"As a result of Wal-Mart's gross, reckless, willful, wanton, and intentional conduct, it should be appropriately punished with the imposition of punitive damages," according to the complaint.

[sphinx]

There’s fault and then there’s responsibility. If the driver is acting as a Walmart employee, then he’s acting as their agent. Walmart is responsible for his actions.

True to a point, but we can really kick the anthill on this one. Suppose you need your living room painted and have reached the age and point of affluence that you no longer want to do it yourself. You hire a local painting company of good repute. On the way to your house, the van rolls through a stop sign and wipes out a class of preschoolers being escorted to the park. Are you liable for what "your employee" has done? The driver was, after all, only there in the first place because he was working for you, and on his way to your location.

You will answer that the driver was not your employee; he was an independent contractor. (Try this if you are a trucking company, and hire independent driver-operators .... This is a big issue.) You might get away with this if the guy is a one-day hire, but what if you are having your basement gutted and redone, and the crews are on site for a month? Or if your cleaning lady did the deed, and she has come in once a week for ten years. You clearly have a long term employment relationship with her, and hopefully have been reporting income and withholding taxes, or killing the preschoolers may be the least of your worries. How much of an employment relationship has to exist before you are liable for your agent's actions? And are you liable for their actions while they are in transit to and from your home, or only on-site?

The point is, the plaintiffs' bar is a green-seeking missile homing in at supersonic speeds on the deepest pocket. In this case, let's assume to driver was a company driver, fully in the employ of WalMart. It's still problematic: do you think employers should be responsible for what their employees do (or don't do) off the clock? How much diligence is due diligence. You had better hope that the guy you hire to paint your living room doesn't deal drugs on the side, or you might be rooming with Bubba some day.

[9YearLurker]

“On the job” does not equal “behind the wheel”.

[real saxophonist]

I worked at walmart for 9 months. We had an interesting safety lecture, with 1 million dollars cash on the table. We were told that's the average cost of a slip and fall lawsuit.

We always had to have a paper towel in our pocket for spills.

[9YearLurker]

But it should affect any punitive damages, no?

[sphinx]

Maybe; maybe not. Regardless, Wal-Mart will be held liable because the guy was driving their truck whether the guy walked across the street or commuted 700 miles. The 700 miles will factor into how much more they will wind up paying.

Accidents happen, and people get killed. The responsible party pays damages. This happens every day, and if it happens to us, we all hope the guy who kills our family member is not an Obama voter or illegal alien with no assets and no insurance.

How much a life is worth is a difficult question. In principle, the affluence of the victim and/or the size or wealth of the perpetrator should not factor into it. It does, of course, but in principle I would like to think that your life, or mine, is as valuable as Bill Gates' life in a wrongful death suit arising from an automobile accident.

I have for some years proposed two hypothetical but clarifying remedies when this discussion arises.

(1) Suppose we let people -- all of us -- value our own lives as we see fit. After all, we do this already, and voluntarily, through the life insurance that we choose to carry. This is a precise measure of the value we place on our own lives when we are paying the premiums ourselves. So let's have a rule that in a wrongful death suit, the next of kin can recover an amount equal to the deceased person's life insurance. Not a penny more.

(2) Alternatively, let's impose a cosmic justice rule, and say that everyone's life in such a case is worth $10 million (or pick your own figure). If that's the standard, that would then become the amount of liability insurance everyone would have to carry before driving a car, or engaging in any other activity that might cause a wrongful accidental death.

We don't think of these cases in such terms because of the optics: in this case, a big truck, which is scary; an employee of a big and presumptively evil company; and a trial lawyer who graduated from the John Edwards sobbing school. This turn the whole thing into a jackpot, which is a profound corruption that we've been living with for many years.

WalMart should be liable for whatever a generic wrongful automobile accident death is worth -- e.g., what you would pay if you accidentally killed someone this afternoon, and it was your fault. To expand the judgment beyond that, one would have to show negligence on the part of the company, and that's where a reasonable limit to an employer's responsibility for the off-work activities of employees comes into play.

[sphinx]

I worked at walmart for 9 months. We had an interesting safety lecture, with 1 million dollars cash on the table. We were told that's the average cost of a slip and fall lawsuit.

Fifteen or more years ago, on a cold, sleeting night, I was exiting my local Safeway and stepped off the curb in front of the store into the parking lot. I was walking normally, not in ice-storm-defense-mode, and I stepped onto a patch of black ice and went flying. I was gratified that long dormant football skills kicked in, and I rolled through what much have looked to bystanders as a quite spectacular head over heels tumble.

Were I a democrat, I suppose I could have stayed down, clutching my back, head, and knee, and groaning softly. I would probably be retired by now. As it was, I rolled through the fall, embarrassed because I had been careless, and popped up with no harm done. Not even a bruise. There were, btw, half a dozen Safeway employees on the spot in a flash; besides being a friendly crew at that particular store, they had probably sat through the same safety lecture you had.

Is Safeway liable for having black ice on their parking lot in the middle of an ice storm? The conditions were clearly sleety. I should have been paying better attention. Where does a company's liability end? I do not think trial lawyers should draw these lines.

[DisorderOnBorder]

They are getting sued by an actor/comedian who has $$ and has been pretty successful on two long running TV shows. Morgan has the $$ to get the lawyers to go after Wal Mart full force. And, with the loss of potential income by Morgan...Wal Mart is looking at least a large six figure loss

And Wal Mart is no hero. They have been the largest wealth redistributor to Communist China through loss of manufacturing jobs (mostly non union mfg. jobs in the South)...and recently started to whine over government welfare and benefit cuts...Wal Mart relies on Welfare programs for business

Although recently Wal Mart is attempting to encourage creation of American jobs...Wal Mart is still the #1 enabler of Socialism

[MD Expat in PA]

Of course Morgan is suing WalMart. Everyone is sue happy now thanks to the ambulance chasing vulgers called lawyers.

While I agree that we have become an overly litigious society and there are vulgar ambulance chasing lawyers (or did you mean “vultures”?), Morgan, and several others were seriously injured and one person died due to no fault of their own. Do you expect them to just suck it up?

And you also might consider that Morgan’s, the others’ and the limo company’s insurance companies are most likely forcing them file suit against Wal-Mart. Their insurance companies are not going to pay out on claims when it is pretty obvious that the Wal-Mart driver was at fault.

Walmart did nothing wrong. How can they verify if a driver has gotten the adequate amount of sleep before going to work? How many times a day does a person who drives a car to and from work party their ass off the night before, be kept up by a crying baby, and other reasons and then they have accidents? It's a double standard when it comes to drivers, cars and trucks. How many thousands of times do drivers in cars have accidents? Lastly, over 80% of wrecks involving trucks are caused by four wheelers. Don't believe it, look it up.

First of all, the driver was in their employ, driving their vehicle at the time of the accident. They most certainly have a responsibility to ensure their drivers are following DOT rules and driving in a safe manner. The driver lived in Georgia but worked out of a Wal-Mart distribution center in Delaware. Let’s say that the driver didn’t exceed the daily and weekly working hours and driving hours limit set by the DOT, kept an accurate log book, however, let’s also suppose that the driver worked 4 days on and was off for 3, given the 700+ miles he commuted each way, it might be reasonable to think that Wal-Mart was or should have been reasonably aware that their driver was not getting enough rest and sleep time. FWIW, the driver was also going 65mph at the time of the crash in an area were the speed limit was 55 mph but had been lowered to 45 mph because of construction. I’m sure during discovery, those log books are going to be gone over with a fine tooth comb.

Comparing a person driving their own personal vehicle to a long haul truck driver is comparing apples to oranges. And FWIW, more and more states have passed or are considering laws against Driving While Drowsy (DWD laws) and that applies to private vehicles, not just commercial vehicles.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20031001/driving-drowsy

[Bender2]

Re: Tracy Morgan has sued Wal-Mart--

Someone should sue Tracy Morgan... for impersonating a comedian--

[Gen.Blather]

“Do you know how many times each day that Wal-Mart is sued?”

For my MBA I wrote several papers on Wal-Mart, which publishes all its data. At the time, 2005, they were being sued 500 times a day. They had the largest on-staff and on-retainer legal assistance of any company in the world.

However, assuming the people running the show ever hear about this case, they may settle out of court. The company is ethically run. The question will be are they culpable or are they simply the largest pocket? They contract out almost all work, so was this guy really an “employee” of Wal-Mart? (For simplicity I often called myself an employee where I worked even though I was a contractor.)

[nickcarraway]

So, by your theory people who kill small children are the least culpable? By your theory small children’s lives have no value, because, hey, how often do children have life insurance?

[muir_redwoods]

I believe the law of agency covers this pretty clearly and Walmart will pay. I wouldn’t be surprised if this a subrogation effort by whomever is Morgan’s health coverage provider.

[bert]

drivel...... pure unadulterated antiwalmart drivel

[Scoutmaster]

That's not the same thing. The painter would be your independent contractor, not your employee.

As a general rule, principals are not liable for the acts of independent contractors. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule.

[sphinx]

Do you think a rich person’s life should be worth more than a poor person’s life?

[Brooklyn Attitude]

When I was in my 20’s I used to drive ~750 miles from Tennessee to NY without a break other than for gas and to use a rest room. I was a zombie by the time I arrived and could barely keep my eyes open. I was lucky I didnt hit anything.

[ETL 2]

They should also sue the millions of people who shop at Walmart. If not for them the chain wouldn't exist.

/s

[pas]

I thought companies were not supposed to be in our bedrooms.

[RetSignman]

Tracy Morgan sues Wal-Mart for crash...
++++++++
Wow, who seen THAT coming.

[cyclotic]

Correct. I do some bus driving for a Christian camp. The camp is about 450 miles from our start point. A round trip takes about 20 hours, but although we’re in the vehicle, we have multiple drivers, usually three. One of our drivers is a motor carrier enforcement officer. We’re well within the legalities.