SEBASTIAN SAMMARTINO, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS HUSBAND, AND SEBASTIAN SAMMARTINO, AS GUARDIAN OF ELEANOR SAMMARTINO, INCOMPETENT, APPELLANT,
v.
LORETTA K. BUTT-BAKER, JACKIE D. ARMSTRONG, AND VSM TRUCKING, INC., APPELLEES
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that summary judgment was improperly granted because genuine issues of material fact remained regarding the truck driver's speed and attentiveness.
A truck driver swerved to avoid a car that pulled out in front of him, crossed the center line, and collided with another vehicle, causing injuries. T…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Automobile Negligence cases and more on FLexlaw
FRANK, Judge.
In this automobile negligence action the trial judge granted summary judgment m favor of the owner and driver of the truck that struck the Sammartinos’ vehicle, on the ground that the accident was caused when a third car pulled out in front of the truck. Because there remain genuine is sues of material fact, we reverse the summary judgment in favor of Jackie Armstrong and YSM Trucking, Inc. This accident occurred when Armstrong, travelling west on State Road 84 (Alligator Alley), veered to avoid a car driven by Butt-Baker, who had pulled out into Alligator Alley in front of Armstrong from a side road. Armstrong’s truck crossed the center line and collided with the pickup truck driven by Sebastian Sammartino. Sammar-tino’s wife, Eleanor, sustained significant injuries in the accident, including brain damage.
By ruling in favor of Armstrong and VSM, the trial judge rejected entirely the testimony of Butt-Baker and her husband that Armstrong was travelling at an unsafe speed. Although the trial judge specifically declared that he had not weighed the credibility of the parties, it is obvious that he did so in forming the conclusion that the depositions of Butt-Baker and her husband, Stanley Baker, were full of guesswork and conjecture. In addition to the question of Armstrong’s speed, other issues to be decided by a jury include whether Armstrong was inattentive and whether he could have taken evasive action to avoid the collision with the Sammartino vehicle.
We reverse the summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.
RYDER, A.C.J., and PATTERSON, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Rodriguez v. Floval OIL Corp., 688 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)…llees Floval Oil Corporation and Silvestre Otto Mederos. When the record evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to appellants, there are genuine issues of material fact which require resolution by a jury. See, e.g., Sammartino v. Butt-Baker, 599 So. 2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). We reverse the summary judgment and remand for farther proceedings. FARMER, STEVENSON and GROSS, JJ., concur.…