Jammed Cab Doors Trap Log Truck Driver In Fatal Fire
After trial: Reduced. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed Mack's liability on May 30, 2003 but cut the punitive award from $25 million to $6 million, conditioned on Mary Witherspoon accepting the remittitur, which she did.
Won by Cunningham Bounds, LLC.
On November 6, 1995, a Mack tractor-trailer hauling logs ran off a Clarke County, Alabama road and rolled over, jamming the passenger door and shifting the logs forward to block the driver's door. The rollover trapped driver Tonnie Ray Witherspoon inside the cab, where a small fire from the crash spread and engulfed the truck, killing him. His mother, Mary Witherspoon, sued Mack Trucks under Alabama's Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrine, and a Clarke County jury awarded $50 million in punitive damages, later remitted to $25 million. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed Mack's liability in 2003 but ordered a further remittitur to $6 million, which Witherspoon accepted.
What happened
On November 6, 1995, Tonnie Ray Witherspoon was driving a Mack Model RD600 tractor hauling a trailer loaded with logs through Clarke County, Alabama. The tractor-trailer ran off the road and rolled over, coming to rest upside down.
The rollover jammed the passenger-side door, which now faced the road, so it could not be opened. The crash also shoved some of the logs on the trailer forward, blocking the driver-side door and trapping Witherspoon inside the cab. A small fire broke out as a result of the impact. It spread and eventually engulfed the cab. Witherspoon died in the fire.
His mother, Mary Witherspoon, was appointed administratrix of his estate and sued Mack Trucks and the dealer that had sold the tractor, Gulf Coast Truck & Equipment Company, alleging negligence, breach of warranty, and liability under Alabama's Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrine, the state's strict products liability framework. On the morning of trial she dismissed her claims against Gulf Coast and dropped the negligence and warranty counts against Mack, taking a single defect claim to a Clarke County jury. Robert T. Cunningham, Jr. and David G. Wirtes, Jr. of Cunningham, Bounds, Yance, Crowder & Brown represented her, along with George M. Dent III of the same firm and local counsel Gaines C. McCorquodale of Jackson, Alabama.
On April 12, 2000, the jury found the tractor defective and returned a verdict for Witherspoon. Alabama's wrongful death statute allows only punitive damages, with no separate compensatory award, so the full verdict came in that form: $50 million in punitive damages.
Mack asked the trial court for a new trial or a reduced award. The court remitted the verdict to $25 million, and Witherspoon accepted the lower figure. Mack then appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, arguing that the evidence did not show the truck was defective and that even $25 million was excessive.
On May 30, 2003, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the jury's finding that the truck was defective, calling the case 'extremely fact intensive' and without broader precedent for other cases. Two justices, See and Stuart, dissented, concluding the evidence did not support liability. Reviewing the punitive award under the excessiveness guideposts from BMW of North America v. Gore and the court's own Hammond and Green Oil decisions, the majority concluded the award should be no more than $6 million. It affirmed the judgment on the condition that Witherspoon file an acceptance of a further remittitur, cutting $19 million from the $25 million figure, within 21 days.
Witherspoon accepted. On June 18, 2003, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a certificate of judgment affirming the case at $6 million in punitive damages, the figure that stands today.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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