In U.S. Bank v. Lindsey, No. 1-07-2606 (1st Dist. Dec. 7, 2009) the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed a Circuit Court decision on appeal. Defendant Carmichael Leasing Company leased a vehicle to a company and their driver of the leased vehicle ran into and killed a co-employee whose job it was to load the truck. Only in Illinois would the leasing company now owe over a million dollars for their simple act of leasing the vehicle that allegedly caused injury.

To clarify, on the date of injury Decedent was an employee of the driver’s employer. He was unloading trucks when he was struck by the truck being operated by the driver. There was conflicting testimony as to what precisely caused the accident, however the prevailing testimony was the driver somehow negligently misused the truck’s brakes causing the vehicle to roll and pin Decedent against another vehicle. Decedent’s ribs were crushed and he passed from his injuries.

This was an unfortunate accident to be sure, and our hearts go out to Decedent’s children but it must be noted he was under the influence of heroin at the time of the accident. In fact, Defendant’s expert testified Decedent had 10-20 times the amount of morphine in his blood as would be given to a normal patient in severe pain. This amount of morphine is not only enough to kill a man but the fact that he was able to tolerate it was suggestive of chronic abuse. Defendant’s expert further testified the amount of heroin in Decedent’s blood was tantamount to “molasses on the brain” and his cognitive and motor abilities were undoubtedly significantly impaired. This was not lost on the jury who found Decedent to be contributorily negligent, but only 50%. Likely because of unusual jury instructions including the circuit court barring of some of Defendant’s expert’s testimony, this level of comparative fault may have been far less than we would have anticipated given someone working directly next to Decedent was able to smoothly avoid injury while Decedent was crushed.

Nevertheless, $3,000,000.00 was awarded to Decedent’s estate, less 50% for his own negligence. As the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for recovery against an employer in workplace injuries, Decedent’s employer was released of all civil liability. It may be presumed they paid death benefits pursuant Illinois workers’ comp law. Similarly, the driver could not be held liable as the Act provides immunity for injuries caused by the tortious acts of a coworker.

Who was then left for decedent’s estate to collect from? Well why not a company with no relation to any parties involved, other than a vehicle lease agreement with Decedent/Defendant’s employer?

That’s right, Carmichael Leasing was found to be liable for the entire award. To our knowledge, Illinois has never been faced with facts similar to this. Our Appellate court opted to take the most liberal route possible and implement what is called “logo liability.” Essentially, this means a company providing a leased vehicle is blindly liable for the negligence of the driver of said vehicle who they don’t know, don’t train and don’t warn. There were no allegations of any problem or dysfunction with the equipment. Particularly disturbing in the case at hand is Decedent was found to be within the coverage of the Interstate Commerce Act which provides protection to members of the travelling public. It is beyond us how unloading stationary trucks in the course and scope of his employment rendered Decedent a member of the “travelling public.”

The legislative intent in providing protection to the travelling public was to provide a financial remedy for those without other recourse. It was almost certainly not to provide a windfall of benefits from multiple sources with minimal or no relation to the injured party. We also don’t see the need for strict liability for anyone leasing a truck—the risk should fall upon the person who is actually negligent. The Appellate Court, in our opinion, took as liberal an approach as possible and the floodgates will almost certainly be opened for excessive litigation and frivolous third party suits, all at the cost of Illinois truck leasing companies.

This article was written by Michael Sullivan, one of our top law students and paralegals. Please do not hesitate to reply with thoughts and comments or post them on the blog. If you need the cite of the case, send a reply.