U.S.A.C. Transport Inc. v. Corley‪.‬

Near the south side of a bridge on Highway No. 41, in Bartow County, Georgia, a heavily loaded tractor-trailer of the U.S.A.C. Transport, Inc., and an automobile, owned and driven by James W. Corley, collided. The truck driver was killed. Corley was injured. The mother of the driver of the truck brought suit against Corley. The suit was settled under circumstances hereinafter referred to. In the action now under review, Corley, alleging the negligence of the truck driver as the cause of the collision, filed suit against the Transport Company and its insurance carrier seeking damages for personal injuries and property damage. The defendants, for answer, denied all charges of negligence of the truck driver and by way of additional defenses asserted that the plaintiff failed to observe ordinary care for his own safety, and to avoid injury; that his own negligence was the cause of the collision; and that plaintiffs negligence equaled or exceeded that of the truck driver. For a seventh defense defendants alleged that the mother of the truck driver had brought action for his death against Corley; that Corleys counsel had settled this suit by payment to her of the sum of $6900, and had taken a release evidencing such settlement; that the defendants liability is purely derivative from said driver so that he could have been joined as a defendant in the present suit, and accordingly the settlement and release barred the present action and extinguished the cause of action asserted.