Case Links for July 25, 2005
Three cases from the Indiana Court of Appeals today:
A costly lesson for Outback. Plaintiff knew within a month that the Outback server would testify that she served drinks to the man who hit the Markley’s on their motorcycle when he was obviously intoxicated. However, plaintiffs never listed the server as a witness or person with knowledge about the case. The server later gave a deposition claiming the driver was not intoxicated, but the day before she testified at trial, she told plaintiff’s counsel she intended to change her story. Plaintiff’s counsel did not notify the other side and she did change her story on the stand. The Court fault’s plaintiff’s counsel for not supplementing his discovery responses, but lets the $39 million judgment against Outback stand, finding that Outback could have stopped the trial, asked for sanctions, but instead opted to impeach the server on cross with her deposition testimony.
The Court uphold’s the dismissal of father’s custody petition under Trial Rule 41, but reverses the trial court’s order restricting father’s access to child, holding that there was no factual foundation for the restriction, reverses the provision permitting mother to designate an alternate custodian for the child if she becomes incapacitated, and revered the award of attorney fees to mother, noting that the parties have similar incomes, each party had custody of one of the parties’ children, and the evidence supporting the fee award did not provide specific time expenditures.
Independent contract hurt on the job. Property owner escapes liability for injuries because general contractor had control of the work site, and property owner did not retain enough control over the general contractor’s activities to merit holding owner liable for work site injury.
