JACOB THOMAS COOK ET AL. v. JEFFERSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE ET AL. - Articles

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JACOB THOMAS COOK ET AL. v. JEFFERSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE ET AL.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Oct 12, 2023

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1: Arthur F. Knight, III, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellants, Jefferson County, Tennessee, and Jefferson County Board of Education.

Attorneys 2: Randal E. Martin and Gary Brewer, Morristown, Tennessee, and Mikel A. Towe, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellees, Jacob Thomas Cook and Rickey J. Macari.

Judge(s): FRIERSON

This case involves an accident between a motor vehicle and a school bus that occurred on Highway 1 lE on a foggy December morning in Jefferson County, Tennessee. The automobile was traveling eastbound on Highway 1 lE when it struck the bus, which was stopped across the two eastbound lanes ofHighway 1 lE positioned to make a left tum onto the westbound lanes. The driver of the car, Jacob Cook, sustained serious injuries as a result of the impact. Mr. Cook, together with his grandfather, Rickey Macari, who owned the vehicle, brought an action in tort seeking damages against Jefferson County, the Jefferson County Board of Education, and the driver of the school bus, Harold Moody. In their complaint, Mr. Cook and Mr. Macari alleged that Mr. Moody's negligence in stopping the school bus across the eastbound lanes was the proximate cause of Mr. Cook's injuries. The defendants filed a counterclaim alleging that Mr. Cook's negligence, and not Mr. Moody's, was the proximate cause of the accident because Mr. Cook had been speeding when the sccident occurred. During a bench trial, the defendants' expert witness, an accident reconstructionist, opined that Mr. Cook had been speeding at the time of the accident but that Mr. Cook's car would have collided with the stopped school bus even had he been following the speed limit. At the conclusion of the bench trial, the trial court found that Mr. Cook was indeed speeding at the time of the accident, but that Mr. Moody should not have attempted to turn left across the eastbound lanes given the traffic and weather conditions. Accordingly, the trial court determined that Mr. Moody's actions were the proximate cause of Mr. Cook's injuries and allocated 80% of the fault for the accident to Mr. Moody, with 20% of the fault assigned to Mr. Cook. The defendants timely appealed. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm the trial court's judgment with one modification: we direct the trial court to dismiss Jefferson County as a defendant because the Jefferson County Board of Education, as the owner of the school bus, is undisputedly the proper defendant in this action.

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