Willis Rogers v. Patrick Fiandaca

On the 11th of May, 1968, a certain 1967 Mustang automobile left a country road while attempting to cross a bridge over a drainage ditch. The incident resulted in the death of five young people including Willis Ray Rogers, Jr. and Wilma Sue Burns. There were no known eyewitnesses to the event and there were no survivors. Wilma Sue Burns, the decedent, was at the date of her death more than twenty-one years of age and she left no surviving spouse or minor children. She did, however, leave surviving her, her mother, Mrs. Willie Blake and a stepfather, Glendal Blake. The plaintiff-respondent (herinafter referred to as plaintiff) as administrator of the estate of Willis Ray Rogers, deceased, filed a wrongful death action against the administrator of the estate of Wilma Sue Burns, deceased, appellant (hereinafter referred to as defendant). The defendant also filed a wrongful death action by way of counterclaim against the plaintiff. The plaintiff's petition it is alleged that the defendant's decedent was negligent in the operation of the automobile that left the travel portion of the bridge over a drainage ditch causing the death of the plaintiff's decedent. In the defendant's counterclaim he alleged that his decedent, Wilma Sue Burns, was riding as a passenger in the Mustang automobile that was being driven and operated by the plaintiff's decedent, Willis Ray Rogers, and that as a result of his negligence the automobile was caused to leave the travel portion of the bridge over the drainage ditch and to cause the death of defendant's decedent, Miss Burns.