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Posted On: September 29, 2011

$21 Million Wrongful Death Suit for Murder of Inmate on Prison Bus Is Going to Trial

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A lawsuit against the state of Maryland and various state departments, state officials, and state employees may proceed to trial according to a ruling by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Sylvester B. Cox. The trial is scheduled to begin October 11, 2011. At issue is whether state officials and employees were negligent in failing to prevent the murder of one inmate by another on a prison bus.

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In the early morning of February 2, 2005, a prison bus was transferring 36 inmates from a prison in Hagerstown to a facility in Baltimore. Five corrections officers were also passengers on the bus. As the bus traveled on Interstate 70, inmate Kevin Johns attacked and murdered fellow inmate Phillip E. Parker, Jr. by slashing his neck with a razor blade and strangling him. Parker died about ten minutes after the bus reached its destination.

Johns was convicted of Parker’s murder but was held not criminally liable because of mental illness. Johns already had two prior murder convictions. He committed suicide in prison in 2009.

This Maryland Accident Law Blog reported in May 2006 on the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Parker’s parents, Melissa Rodriguez and Philip E. Parker Sr., against the state, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the corrections officers on the bus and the bus driver, and other related state agencies. The lawsuit alleges that corrections officers did nothing to intervene in or prevent the attack, even though two officers were seating a few feet behind the two inmates. The officers were allegedly watching videotapes or listening to music and eating when the attack occurred. The plaintiffs’ attorney claims to have evidence that Parker lay dying for 10 minutes with no one trying CPR, as well as evidence that the officers had insufficient training for such situations. The suit seeks $21 million in damages, as well as punitive damages.

The Maryland attorney general’s office asked the court to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims, arguing that the officers had no knowledge of a specific threat against Parker, and that they therefore cannot be held liable for what occurred. Judge Cox disagreed, holding that "it can be reasonably inferred in this case that the officers were, at a minimum, negligent.” Judge Cox’s order denying the state’s motion to dismiss means that the lawsuit may now proceed to trial. The plaintiffs will have to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendants are legally liable for Parker’s death.

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Posted In: Wrongful Death

Posted On: September 20, 2011

Two Senior Citizens Killed in Benedict, Maryland, Car Accident

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A four-vehicle automobile accident in Benedict, Maryland, around noon on Friday, September 9, 2011 killed two local senior citizens and injured at least three others. Franz and Evelyn Isabelle Sommer, a married couple, were driving east on Route 231 in their Ford Focus near the Patuxent River Bridge when a Penske rental truck rear-ended their vehicle. The collision caused the Sommers’ vehicle to veer into the westbound lane of Route 231, where it collided head-on with a Mitsubishi Galant. The Penske truck went on to strike a Saturn L200 in the westbound lane. The Sommers’ car and the Saturn L200 were wedged under the Penske truck.

IMG_4353a09202011.jpgFive people were taken to the hospital for injuries: Deborah Ellen Parkinson, the driver of the Galant; Kimberly Leighanne Garcia, the driver of the Saturn and two children who were in her car; and Michael Anthony Duckett, the driver of the Penske truck. Police report that none of the injuries were life-threatening. A passenger in the truck was unharmed, according to police on the scene. According to witnesses, Parkinson’s vehicle flipped over in the accident, and she had to be pulled out by firefighters.

Investigators have concluded that Duckett’s failure to control the speed of the truck caused the accident, and that alcohol was not a factor. Criminal charges have not yet been filed, pending the completion of the investigation. Duckett could potentially face up to ten years in prison if he is charged under Maryland’s “manslaughter by vehicle” statute, which covers deaths resulting from “driving, operating, or controlling a vehicle or vessel in a grossly negligent manner.”

In addition to any potential criminal charges, the driver of the truck could also face civil liability to all of the people injured in the accident, from a wrongful death claim by relatives of the Sommers to injury claims by the other drivers and their passengers. The driver of the truck is responsible not only for the actual rear-end collision of his truck and the Sommers’ vehicle, but for every collision directly caused by that collision. At least three collisions occurred in this case, causing multiple injuries.

A popular notion is that a driver who rear-ends another driver is by definition “at fault.” This is not always the case, but it is a useful principle. If the driver of the rear-ended vehicle behaved negligently, such as braking abruptly without good cause, then both drivers may be at fault. If a driver swerves into a lane of traffic and is rear-ended by a car already in that lane, the swerving driver is probably 100% at fault. A driver who rear ends a vehicle because he was pushed into the car after being rear-ended himself should not be liable, but the driver doing the original rear-ending might be liable for all collisions in that situation. A better general principle to apply to rear-end collisions might be that the driver who creates the conditions leading to the rear-end collision should be primarily liable, and that the driver is liable for injuries caused by those collisions.

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Posted In: Car Accidents , SUV Accidents , Truck Accidents

Posted On: September 16, 2011

Reduction in Car Accident Fatalities Among 16 Year-Olds Matched by Rise Among 18 Year-Olds

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atthewheel09152011.jpgRestrictions placed on teenagers’ driving privileges has led to a decrease in the number of fatal automobile accidents among 16-year-olds. Research suggests, however, that the risk may simply have shifted to older teens, as a corresponding rise in traffic fatalities has occurred among 18-year-olds. A study published in the September 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed data from crashes nationwide covering the years 1986 to 2007 and found an increase in fatal car accidents as teens get older. 16-year-olds average 28.2 fatal crashes per 100,000 person-years, compared to 36.9 for 27-year-olds and 46.2 for 18-year-olds.

Graduated driver licensing laws, known as GDLs, limit driving privileges of 16-year-olds until they gain experience in lower-risk driving situations. Most GDL’s establish three stages: a “learner’s” period requiring supervised driving, an intermediate period with limited unsupervised driving, and a full privilege period identical to an adult driver’s license. Some states add restrictions on nighttime driving, use of cell phones while driving, and number of passengers allowed in cars operated by teenagers. New Jersey requires drivers without full privileges to display a “new driver” decal on their vehicles.

Maryland’s GDL allows entry into the learner’s stage at 15 years, 9 months, and requires a minimum of 9 months in that stage with a minimum of 60 hours of supervised driving. Young drivers may enter the intermediate stage at age 16 years, 6 months and after completing the learner’s stage. Intermediate drivers cannot drive unsupervised between midnight and 5:00 a.m. and cannot have passengers under the age of 18 for the first five months. All restrictions may be lifted at age 18.

By limiting new drivers’ exposure to high-risk, dangerous situations, GDLs appear to have successfully reduced the total number of fatal car accidents among 16- and 17-year-old teens. Researchers suspect, however, that at least part of the higher rate of fatalities among 18-year-olds may be due to teens deferring obtaining a driver’s license until age 18, thus skipping the GDL process entirely. This results in 18-year-old new drivers who have not gone through the training process encompassed by GDL’s.


"[Older teens] are saying, 'The heck with your more complicated process,'" says Justin McNaull, director of state relations for the American Automobile Association. At 18, teenagers can, in many cases, get their license in a matter of weeks.

No national database exists to show the total number of 16-year-old drivers compared to older new drivers. The hypothesis is therefore largely anecdotal, as it is not clear if there are fewer 16-year-old drivers nationwide. The study’s finding suggest that there is no net change in the total number of traffic fatalities, at least as related to GDL’s, but rather that the risk has shifted to slightly older drivers.

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Posted In: Car Accidents , Injuries to Minors

Posted On: September 8, 2011

Maryland Lawsuit Seeks to Hold Bar Liable for Intoxicated Boating Accident

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A lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in Maryland seeks to hold a bar liable for injuries sustained in a 2008 boating accident. Early in the morning on June 5, 2008 a ski boat carrying 10 people crashed into an abutment on the Route 90 bridge in Ocean City, Maryland. Conditions at the time were foggy, and the collision caused all of the boat's occupants to fall into the water. Everyone was rescued, although several sustained injuries. Only one passenger required hospitalization, while 6 passengers were treated at the hospital and released, and 3 were treated at the scene.

Scott Howard Shepard, who was operating the boat at the time of the accident, was eventually charged with operating a vessel while impaired, negligent operation and reckless operation. He received a 30-day jail sentence. Shepard and the boat's passengers had been at Seacrets, a resort nightclub. The club's water taxi had ferried them to their boat prior to the accident.

In March 2011, passenger Danielle Vollmer, who had been treated and released from the hospital, filed suit in the United States District Court in Baltimore against Shepard and Seacrets. The claim against Shepard appears to be an ordinary negligence claim, while the claim against Seacrets incorporates maritime law claims and a claim for dram shop act liability. Her complaint states that “Seacrets knew or should have known that ferrying and encouraging a severely intoxicated patron such as Shepard to his boat, and then later ferrying the plaintiff to board and depart on the same boat with Shepard, created a condition of danger to the plaintiff and the public.” She is seeking $1 million in damages from each of the defendants.

Vollmer’s case against Seacrets will be interesting to watch. Maryland is one of 12 U.S. states that does not have a statute or caselaw providing for dram shop liability. “Dram shop” liability holds a bar that sells alcohol, or a host that serves alcohol, to a visibly intoxicated person strictly liable for damages subsequently caused by that person. For example, a bar that sells liquor to an individual who would appear intoxicated to any reasonable person would be liable to a person injured by the intoxicated individual, to the extent that the injuries were a result of the person’s drunken state. This most often involves DUI accidents. 38 states have laws allowing this sort of liability, but not Maryland.

That may change in the near future, though. In June 2011, Montgomery County, Maryland judge Eric M. Johnson stated in an order that it is time for Maryland’s law to change. Judge Johnson was presiding over a lawsuit against a bar by the family of a child killed by a drunk driver who had been served beer at the bar prior to the accident. In rejecting the bar’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Judge Johnson wrote:

The facts of this case undoubtedly should serve as the impetus to adjusting Maryland jurisprudence on the topic of dram shop liability...This court is of the opinion that while the Maryland legislature has not enacted dram shop legislation, it has not expressly prohibited it ... A bar owner who continuously serves drinks to intoxicated individuals and makes no attempt to ensure that the individual has alternative means home should expect that the intoxicated patron can get into an accident.
Judge Johnson’s order does not have any force of law beyond that particular lawsuit, but it may herald a change in how bars are treated when a bar patron causes an accident.

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Posted In: Boating Accidents , Maryland Legislation

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