Olivio Duenas, et al. v. TNT Bestway Transportation, Inc. and Milton Cleveland
Published: Jan. 20, 1996 | Result Date: Dec. 8, 1995 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: TC00657 – $0
Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Compton
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Ann Juri
(technical)
William M. Jones
(technical)
Defendant
Roy D. Jablonsky
(technical)
K. Alison Clark Stewart
(technical)
Lawrence M. Elson
(technical)
Facts
The plaintiffs alleged that on November 2, 1992, at between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., a truck owned by the defendant, TNT Bestway Transportation, driven by its employee, defendant, Milton Cleveland, struck and killed Ignacio Duenas (deceased), a then 52-year-old unemployed husband and father, and his 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Duenas (deceased), while they were crossing Alameda Street at or near its intersection with Oak Street in the City of Compton, California. The Compton Police Department investigated the accident and, in route from the scene to police headquarters, Olivio Duenas identified the impacting vehicle as a truck that had three big letters on it. In addition, upon passing a TNT Bestway truck and trailer rig, Olivio Duenas commented to the officers that the impacting vehicle was "like that." The day following the accident, Olivio Duenas was taken by police to the TNT Bestway Compton terminal, located six blocks north of the accident scene, to look at a number of different trucks. Olivio Duenas identified a TNT Bestway cab-over engine, three-axle tractor as being like the impacting vehicle. This tractor, identified as tractor #655, was regularly driven by the defendant, Milton Cleveland. In the follow-up investigation, it was determined that defendant, Milton Cleveland, had entered the TNT Bestway Compton terminal driving tractor #655 at 5:37 p.m. on November 2, 1992, having returned from a cargo pick up location some distance north of the terminal. Upon inspection, tractor #655 appeared to the police officers to have been recently washed. The Compton Police Department thereafter impounded tractor #655, which was then examined by forensic specialists from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crime Laboratory who found no evidence linking it to the accident.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiffs demanded $8,000,000 at the mandatory settlement conference. The defendants made no settlement offer.
Damages
The plaintiffs asked the jury for $3,000,000
Injuries
Death of a spouse/father and daughter/sibling.
Other Information
The verdict was reached approximately two years and one and a half months after the case was filed. Following the accident, plaintiffs, Francisca and Olivio Duenas, received counseling from a family counselor, Ann Juri, during which Olivio Duenas drew a picture of the impacting vehicle with the letters "TNT" upon it. During trial, through the testimony of Olivio Duenas and numerous police officers, the plaintiffs attempted to demonstrate Olivio Duenas' consistent identification of tractor #655 as the impacting vehicle, and to suggest that certain repairs performed on tractor #655, documented to have been performed on November 2, 1992, at the TNT Bestway Compton terminal, had been undertaken and completed following the accident. The plaintiffs offered no expert testimony with respect to potential future economic loss arising out of the decedents' deaths. Roy Jablonsky, the defendants' accident reconstruction expert, testified about a demonstrative test he performed using an anthropomorphic dummy to replicate the height and weight of the decedent, Ignacio Duenas. Jablonsky testified that, based on his test, the damage pattern to the tractor's grille which would have occurred in the accident was not present in tractor #655. In addition, the defendants offered the testimony of Lawrence Elson, Ph.D., an anatomist, who, using the medical examiner's reports documenting the autopsies of decedents, testified that the pattern of the decedents' injuries and the photographs depicting those injuries were inconsistent with the structural characteristics unique to the front portion of tractor #655 and the reconstruction of the accident by plaintiffs' expert, William Jones. The defendants also offered the testimony of Alison Clarke-Stewart, Ph.D., a research psychologist specializing in the field of the suggestibility of a child's memory recall, to show that Olivio Duenas' identification of tractor #655 as the impacting vehicle was the result of "suggestibility" through his limited exposure to only those trucks located at the TNT Bestway terminal, the manner in which he was interrogated by police officers and subsequent counseling techniques.
Deliberation
Approximately 6 hours
Poll
12-0
Length
15 days
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