Gleim v. Roberts

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Gleim v. Roberts

State: Illinois

Court: 1st District Appellate

Docket No: 1-08-1332 NRel

Case Date: 09/01/2009

Preview:SECOND DIVISION SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 1-08-1332 GAIL GLEIM, as Administrator of the Estate of Winona Ardis, Deceased, and GAIL GLEIM and CRYSTAL JACOBS, Individually, PAMELA J. MILROY, as Administrator of the Estate of Karen Peters, Deceased, and PAMELA J. MILROY and STACY BURNE, Individually, GINGER S. ROEDER, as Administrator of the Estate of Lois Faus, Deceased, and GINGER S. ROEDER and ZELIA HEINTZ, Individually, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. DEMETRIO ROBERTS and YELLOW TRANSPORTATION, INC., Defendants-Appellants. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Nos.

05 L 6569 05 L 6570 05 L 6572

Honorable Abishi Cunningham Judge Presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE CUNNINGHAM delivered the opinion of the court: This is a wrongful death case in which an interlocutory appeal was taken by the defendants, Yellow Transportation, Inc. (Yellow Transportation), and its employee-driver, Demetrio Roberts (Roberts), from an order of the circuit court of Cook County determining that Illinois law, not Indiana law, applies to the damages at issue. Illinois law applies no caps on the damages at issue while Indiana law does impose caps in some circumstances. The plaintiffs include the three administrators of the estates of three decedents who died when the automobile in which they were riding was struck by a truck owned by Yellow Transportation and driven by Roberts. The remaining six plaintiffs are the adult daughters of these three decedents (two daughters per decedent), and three of those plaintiffs are also plaintiffs in the capacity of administrators of the estates of the three

1-08-1332 decedents. 1 The defendants, under the belief that Indiana law would place a cap on any damages obtained by the six plaintiffs who are children of the decedents, moved for a determination by the trial court that Indiana law, not Illinois law, should apply on the question of damage caps. After the trial court ruled that Illinois law would apply, the parties settled the case except for the exact amount of damages. On the question of damages, they entered into a high/low agreement which would be governed by the law of Illinois or Indiana, depending upon which state's law is ultimately determined, on appeal, to govern the damage cap issue.2 At the defendants' request, the trial court then entered an order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 308 (134 Ill. 2d R. 308) certifying the question and declaring that it merited an immediate, interlocutory appeal. We affirm. BACKGROUND The relevant material facts are not in dispute. On October 30, 2004, defendant Roberts, an Illinois resident, was driving Yellow Transportation's double-rig truck on a return trip from New York to Illinois, on an assignment for Yellow Transportation. The assignment had begun in Illinois. On the Indiana toll road, defendant's truck crossed into oncoming traffic, striking a car in which four women were riding, including the plaintiffs' three decedents. All four women were killed, but the

There are nine plaintiffs: Gail Gleim, in her capacity as administrator of the estate of Winona Ardis (a decedent), and individually along with Crystal Jacobs as the children of decedent Ardis; Pamela J. Milroy in her capacity as administrator of the estate of Karen Peters and individually, with Stacy Burne, as the children of decedent Peters; and Ginger S. Roeder as administrator of the estate of Lois Faus and individually, along with Zelia Heintz, as children of decedent Faus. The agreement does not appear in the record on appeal, nor have the parties disclosed its details in their brief. 2
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1-08-1332 estate of one of the decedents and a surviving adult child of that decedent (Ledora Spence) settled their lawsuit against the defendants, and thus are not parties to this appeal. There was evidence that Roberts suffered from sleep apnea and was medically required to use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine to allow him to breathe properly at night and obtain restful sleep. When he did not use his CPAP machine, he would become sleepy during the day. Roberts did not bring his CPAP machine on this trip, and therefore spent the night in New York without it, rising at 1:30 a.m. to drive back to Illinois. An Indiana State Police investigator concluded that fatigue played a part in the accident, in addition to Roberts driving too fast in the face of very strong winds on the highway. Plaintiffs' decedents were Pennsylvania residents, returning from a vacation in Illinois. Plaintiffs are residents of Pennsylvania and Arizona. Roberts' employer, defendant Yellow Transportation, is incorporated in Indiana but has its principal place of business in Kansas. It also has offices in Illinois, where Roberts was trained; from where his driving instructions were issued; and from where his driving assignments originated. As stated, in 2005 the plaintiffs sued Roberts and Yellow Transportation in the circuit court of Cook County for wrongful death. The parties partially settled the case, including agreeing to a high/low damages award, with the actual award to be calculated based upon whether Indiana or Illinois law governed. The defendants filed a motion to determine the applicable law, seeking a declaration that Indiana's $300,000 damages cap applies to noneconomically dependent plaintiffs or survivors of decedents in wrongful death cases in which damages awarded were noneconomic. The trial court applied a choice-of-law analysis. The trial court found that when examining which state had the most significant relationship to the case, the factors were essentially evenly divided between 3

1-08-1332 Indiana and Illinois. The accident occurred in Indiana and the driver's employer was a corporation registered in Indiana, but with its principal place of business in Kansas. The only relationship between the parties was the Indiana accident. Some of Roberts' negligent actions, driving too fast for extremely windy conditions, occurred on the Indiana highway. But Roberts' negligent act of leaving his CPAP machine behind occurred in Illinois. Further, he worked out of Yellow Transportation's offices in Illinois, was trained there, and was dispatched from Illinois for the trip which resulted in the accident. After finding that these factors did not weigh more heavily in favor of either state, the trial court turned to an interest analysis, which it found was the fundamental test for a choice-of-law determination under Illinois law. Looking to public policy, the court determined that there was a clear policy in Illinois against imposing a cap on damages for wrongful death actions, in order to fully compensate victims and to hold tortfeasors fully responsible. The trial court found that Indiana law took a more narrow view. Indiana law only imposes caps on that portion of wrongful death damages awarded when the decedent is an adult and the damages awarded are "noneconomic" and the plaintiffs are nondependents within the statutory meaning. In other words, only when nondependents obtain "noneconomic" damages does Indiana law cap damages. Thus, Indiana law caps

"noneconomic" damages awarded to the nondependent children, parents, or survivors of decedents in wrongful death cases. The trial court held that Illinois policy, which favors full compensation for victims of a tort, trumped Indiana policy, which limits damages for wrongful death in cases where the plaintiffs are "nondependents" seeking "noneconomic" damages.

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1-08-1332 ANALYSIS As the plaintiffs note in their briefs, a choice-of-law analysis presupposes a conflict in the relevant law of two states. Therefore, before applying a choice-of-law analysis, a court must first determine whether such a conflict exists. McGrew v. Pearlman, 304 Ill. App. 3d 697, 701, 710 N.E.2d 125, 128 (1999); Malatesta v. Mitsubishi Aircraft International, Inc., 275 Ill. App. 3d 370, 374, 655 N.E.2d 1093, 1096 (1995). Only if the application of the law of one state will yield a different result than the application of the law of a second state is a choice-of -law analysis necessary. Townsend v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 227 Ill. 2d 147, 155, 879 N.E.2d 893, 898 (2007); McGrew, 304 Ill. App. 3d at 701, 710 N.E.2d at 128; Malatesta, 275 Ill. App. 3d at 374, 655 N.E.2d at 1096. If the relevant laws of the two states yield essentially the same result regarding the issue in question, so that application of either law will produce the same result, there is no need to apply a choice-oflaw analysis. Wreglesworth v. Arctco, Inc., 316 Ill. App. 3d 1023, 1028, 738 N.E.2d 964, 969 (2000). In the absence of a conflict in the relevant laws of the two states, the law of the forum state applies. That means that if a case is brought in Illinois, then Illinois law applies. SBC Holdings, Inc. v. Travelers Casualty & Surety Co., 374 Ill. App. 3d 1, 13, 872 N.E.2d 10, 20-21 (2007); Dearborn Insurance Co. v. International Surplus Lines Insurance Co., 308 Ill. App. 3d 368, 373, 719 N.E.2d 1092, 1096 (1999). Here, the alleged conflict was that Illinois places no cap on damages in wrongful death cases, whereas by statute Indiana does place a $300,000 cap on non-economic damages in such cases. However, the Indiana statutory cap only applies if the decedent has only parents or children who are not economically dependent on the decedent. See Necessary v. Inter-State Towing, 697 N.E.2d 73, 76 (Ind. App. 1998). In such a case, there is a cap of $300,000 on noneconomic wrongful 5

1-08-1332 death damages. Ind. Code

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