Date: 08-12-2014

Case Style: James A. Bailey v. Economy Supply, Inc., Cecilia Garcia and Christopher Oswaldo Vasquez

Case Number: CJ-2011-5813

Judge: Carlos Chappelle

Court: District Court, Tulsa County, Oklahoma

Plaintiff's Attorney: Richard Jeffrey Borg

Defendant's Attorney: Scott Dawson Cannon and Kamran K. Momeni

Description: James A. Bailey v. Economy Supply, Inc., Cecilia Garcia and Christopher Oswaldo Vasquez

Issue # 1.
Issue: TORT- PERSONAL (TORTP)
Filed by: BAILEY, JAMES A
Filed Date: 10/19/2011
Party Name: Disposition Information:

Defendant: GARCIA, CECILIA
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 10/08/2013. Other.

Defendant: VASQUEZ, CHRISTOPHER OSWALDO
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 10/08/2013. Other.

Defendant: ECONOMY SUPPLY INC
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 08/12/2014. Dismissed- Settled.

Issue # 2.
Issue: TORT- PERSONAL (TORTP)
Filed by: BAILEY, SHARON K
Filed Date: 10/19/2011
Party Name: Disposition Information:

Defendant: GARCIA, CECILIA
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 10/08/2013. Other.

Defendant: VASQUEZ, CHRISTOPHER OSWALDO
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 10/08/2013. Other.

Defendant: ECONOMY SUPPLY INC
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 08/12/2014. Dismissed- Settled.

This case arose from a motor vehicle accident that occurred on October 29, 2010, at the intersection of West Skelly Drive and South Union Avenue. At approximately 3:15 p.m. on that date, Economy’s employee Dustin Lenard was traveling eastbound on West Skelly Drive, en route to a delivering oil field equipment weighing some 9,000 pounds to an Economy customer. Lenard was driving a truck and towing a 20 foot gooseneck trailer owned by Economy.
Prior to the accident, Lenard was stopped at a stop sign eastbound on the access road of Skelly Drive facing South Union Avenue. Opposite him was Plaintiff James Bailey at the stop sign controlling westbound traffic on the Skelly Drive access road at its intersection with South Union.
Bailey was returning to his home in Jenks from his day’s work at the Pepsi Co. Bottling plant. The access road that Bailey and Lenard were traveling is to the south of the overpass bridge where Union Avenue crosses Skelly Drive. South Union Avenue and the Skelly Drive access road are both 2 lanes wide at this intersection.
At the time, east- and westbound traffic on the Skelly Drive access road was controlled by stop signs, and South Union Avenue was a through street. By Bailey’s own account, this was “nasty” intersection, at which Bailey had seen many accidents during the 25 years he had traveled this route between home and work. Perhaps due to the high incidence of accidents there, the intersection has now been made a four-way stop, with the addition of stop signs controlling north-and-southbound traffic on Union.
Lenard was at his stop sign waiting to cross Union Avenue when Bailey got to the intersection. Bailey indicated to Lenard to come ahead, as Lenard was at the intersection first, and by his lack of signal indicating a turn apparently intended to cross Union Avenue instead of turning onto it. Bailey estimated he had been stopped for about a minute before traffic on Union cleared and Lenard pulled away from his stop sign.
Lenard’s truck and half his trailer had crossed the center line of Union Avenue when, in Bailey’s words, a black 2009 Honda Civic driven by Christopher Owaldo Vasquez “just flew right out of nowhere and nailed him [Bailey].” The small Honda Civic driven by Vasquez struck the rear of Lenard’s trailer with such force that the trailer lurched side ways, jack-knifing Lenard’s truck into the right front of Bailey’s SUV. The impact pushed Bailey’s vehicle several feet back to the east. The police and EMSA were summoned, and Bailey and Vasquez were taken together by ambulance from the scene of the accident to the St. Francis Hospital Emergency Room, where Bailey was examined for neck and back pain.
Although Bailey was treated and released at the emergency room without being admitted to the hospital, over the next three months his low back pain became worse instead of better. In early of February 2011, he had surgery to repair herniated disks in his lumbar spine. On October19 of that year, he brought this action against Economy, Vasquez, and Co-Defendant Cecelia Garcia, Vasquez’s mother and the owner of the black Honda Civic. In his lawsuit, he alleged the accident was caused by the negligence of Lenard, Vasquez, or both, and asserted a claim of negligent entrustment against Garcia, whose son Vasquez was illegally driving her vehicle with a learner’s permit instead of an operator’s license.
Despite his claim of negligence asserted against Lenard in his Petition and reiterated in his Interrogatory answers, Bailey believed at the time of the accident and believes to this day that Lenard was not at fault. Based on what Bailey saw and heard at the time of the collision and his knowledge of the intersection, he thinks Vasquez was entirely to blame for the accident due to excessive speed and inattentive driving, which resulted in Vasquez smashing into the rear of Lenard’s trailer, without the slightest effort to stop or slow down to avoid impact. When the black Honda came into Bailey’s view the instant before impact, Bailey could see that Vasquez’s head was down, giving Bailey the
impression that Vasquez was playing with the car’s radio or texting instead of watching where he was going. Bailey’s car windows were down and his radio was off, but he heard no screeching of rubber on pavement, and afterwards he saw no tire marks on the street, leading him to believe Vasquez did not even apply his brakes prior to impact. Bailey firmly believes the way was clear to the north when Lenard pulled away from the stop sign to cross Union Avenue.

Outcome: Settled for $35,000.00.

08-12-2014 DISPCVDMWP 1 ECONOMY SUPPLY INC 90974851 Aug 13 2014 9:27:00:910AM - $ 0.00
DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE
08-12-2014 DISPCVDMWP 2 ECONOMY SUPPLY INC 90974852 Aug 13 2014 9:27:01:250AM - $ 0.00
DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE

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Defendant's Experts:

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