“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. It includes judges nominated in both his first and second terms.
Joel Carson, nominated by Donald Trump to the Tenth Circuit court of appeals, wrote a 2-1 decision affirming a lower court ruling that as a matter of law, a truck company and its driver were not liable for an accident that caused the death of two passengers and injury to a driver and another passenger. Richard Federico, who was nominated by President Biden, dissented and would have ruled that a jury should decide the case in the April ruling in Estate of Laura Ratley.
What happened in this case?
A Shamrock Food Company truck was being driven along the Cimmaron Turnpike in Oklahoma by driver Dhafar Awad. He stopped for the night on top of rumble strips on the shoulder of the highway with no warning devices or lights.
Around 1:30 am, Ryan Fulcher was driving his minivan along the highway with his sister Rebecca and his girlfriend and friends Leah and Laura Ratley. Fulcher dozed off and drifted off the roadway onto the shoulder. Fulcher began to correct his steering but it was too late. The minivan hit the truck, killing Laura and Rebecca and seriously injuring Leah and Ryan.
In a lawsuit against Shamrock and Awad, a district court dismissed the case as a matter of law, concluding that a jury could “reasonably find” no evidence from which it could determine that there was a causal nexus between them and the accident victims. The case was appealed to the Tenth Circuit.
How did Carson and the Tenth Circuit majority rule and why is the decision harmful?
Carson wrote a 2-1 decision that affirmed the court below and threw out the complaints brought on behalf of the dead and injured motorists. Based on previous accidents involving “parked cars”, he agreed with the district court that the parked truck was a ‘mere condition” and that the driver Ryan Fulcher “proximately caused” all the injuries.
Richard Federico, who was nominated by President Biden, dissented and would have ruled that the jury should decide such a case as a matter of fact. He explained that there is no “single rule” that applies to such “parked car” cases, despite the majority’s “hard-and-fast” attempted rule that if a driver like Fulcher can “see and should have avoided hitting” a parked car or truck, the parked vehicle is “effectively immune” from suit. But relevant case law went on, Federico explained, to make clear that a jury should decide such cases, based on factors they may consider like the lack of warning lights as required by state regulations and disabling of the rumble strips by where the truck driver parked. The jury could also have held the truck company liable, Federico ruled, because of negligent hiring and supervision.
Overall, Judge Carson’s holding clearly harmed Ryan Fulcher and his other passengers in their quest for compensation and justice against the truck driver and truck company in the tragic accident. The decision will also make it easier for corporations to prevail in injury cases, especially in the Tenth Circuit, which includes Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. In addition, the case illustrates the importance of our federal courts to health, welfare and justice and the significance of having fair-minded judges on the federal bench.