Mcclenahan v. Cooley

806 S.W.2d 767 (Tenn. 1991)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

Cooley (D) drove his car to a bank located in the public parking lot of a shopping center. D left the keys in the ignition to his parked automobile while he went inside of the bank to transact business. A thief spotted the keys in the ignition of the vehicle and stole the car. He was spotted by the state police, and a high-speed chase ensued. The thief was pursued by police officers approximately 80 miles per hour approaching the most dangerous intersection in the city. He ran the red light and hit a car driven by P's thirty-one-year-old wife who was six to eight months pregnant. She died fourteen hours later as well as the viable fetus which was delivered and died before her untimely death. P's four-year-old son, a passenger in the vehicle, also died. Another young child who was also riding in the vehicle sustained substantial injuries but survived. D's car was reported stolen at 11:13 a.m. and the collision between the stolen car and the one owned by P occurred at 11:33 a.m. D was employed as a law enforcement officer and had formerly been a high-ranking officer with various law enforcement agencies in McMinn County. P sued D for negligence per se and common law negligence for the wrongful death of his wife and the two children, and for injuries to the child who survived. The trial judge granted D's motion for judgment on the pleadings, holding that since the vehicle owned by D was left unattended on private property at the time, it was stolen, T.C.A. § 55-8-162 did not apply. The Court of Appeals affirmed and opined that the intervening negligence of the thief insulated D from liability and that T.C.A. § 55-8-162 has no application to vehicles left unattended in privately owned parking lots. P appealed.