You are a paralegal in a civil litigation law firm, Law Offices of Damon E. Martin, LLP. The supervising trial attorney-Karen Travis has requested that you assist her in the pre-trial work-up of a personal injury lawsuit brought by Harry Hampton.
You have already participated in the initial interview with Mr. Hampton.
Ms. Travis, has requested that you prepare the Complaint in this matter to be filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court-Van Nuys (Northwest) Branch.
The complaint should assert (1) the proper cause of action (2) the appropriate damages (3) punitive damages if possible.
THE HAMPTON CASE
If Harry Hampton had known what was about to happen to him, he would never have taken the shortcut.
It all began on the afternoon of April 14, 2007. After getting off the bus on his way home from work, Harry walked over to Bud's Auto Service, a white clapboard garage and filling station that had served motorists of Milltown, in the state of Exurbia, for over a generation. Buddy Lindquist gestured from Bay 1 for Harry to meet him in the tiny office.
"You had a problem with the electrical system," said Buddy as he slipped behind the counter.
"I had to do some work on the wiring. Little Buddy finished it up this morning. Should be fine now."
Little Buddy was Buddy's teenage son.
"Thanks, Buddy," said Harry. "Can I put it on my credit card? I've got to do my taxes tonight, so I'd rather not write a check."
Buddy laughed. "No problem, Harry."
Harry paid the bill, thanked Buddy again, then drove the half mile to his house. His wife was away with the children, visiting her mother in Los Angeles, so Harry fixed himself a frozen pizza for dinner, then sat down at his desk with a year's worth of receipts, bills, statements, and other assorted records, and waded into his Form 1040. It was a marathon session, and several times Harry thought that the evil piece of paper had beaten him, but finally, at 3:30 A.M. on April 15, he filled in the last number and signed at the bottom. It was a weary taxpayer who trudged up the stairs to bed.
At 6:30 his alarm buzzed him awake. Harry groaned, reached over to shut it off, then lay back on the pillow to steal another five minutes of sleep.
When he awoke it was 7:45. He had to be at work at 8:30; he was going to be late! He charged through his shower, jumped into his clothes, then dashed out the door without even a cup of coffee.
As he drove toward the Metro Parkway, his intention was to make a quick stop at the Milltown Post Office to mail his tax return. As he approached the post office, he flicked on his right turn signal to indicate a turn into the 10-minute parking zone. To Harry's great frustration, the dashboard indicator failed to indicate that the signal was on. Harry pared and mailed his letter. As he got back into his car, he slammed the door with frustration: Buddy hadn't fixed anything!
Meanwhile, on the other side of Milltown, Judith Johnson handed a lunch bag to her youngest son, Billy, who bounced out the door to catch his school bus. Judith then finished the breakfast dishes, checked her make-up, and headed out for her car. She had plenty of time to reach her job as a dental hygienist in Metro City, where her work day began at 10:00. She planned to use her extra time to visit at a travel agent before work, to start on plans for an upcoming vacation.
Harry pulled onto Metro Parkway and proceeded for about a mile until the traffic stopped dead in front of him. He flipped on WMET and learned from the traffic repost that a tractor-trailer had jackknifed in the other direction, but "rubberneckers" heading into Metro City were slowing commuter traffic. He was tired, he was annoyed at Buddy, and this back-up was the last straw. He decided to take the next exit, at Higgins Lane, and use a back-road shortcut to Metro City that was longer in miles, but, in light of the traffic, would be quicker than staying on Metro Parkway.
Judith, meanwhile, was listening to a symphony on her car's sophisticated audio system, blissfully unaware of the traffic conditions on Metro Parkway as she navigated Pruitt Street in the direction of the nearest parkway entrance, and equally unaware of her impending encounter with Harry.
The intersection of Pruitt Street and Higgins Lane was regulated by four-way stop signs. The pole of the stop sign on Pruitt Street was completely bent over, so that approaching cars could not see that it was a stop sign. Judith, however, was familiar with this intersection, having crossed it almost every day for several years, and was familiar with the stop sign. She had even written a letter to the Milltown traffic department, asking them to fix it.
As Judith approached the intersection, at a moment when she was enraptured nu the strains of Mozart's Symphony #40, she sneezed. The sneeze caught her off guard, and forced her to close her eyes momentarily. When she opened them, she realized she was zooming toward the intersection, and might not be able to stop.
She had to make a snap decision-should she slam on the brakes, which might succeed in stopping her in time but might also leave her stranded in the middle of the intersection, or should she accelerate to get through the intersection before the next care came through?
At that moment, Harry had just come to a stop at the intersection. He was to Judith's left, on Higgins Lane heading west. He had every intention of continuing straight on Higgins Lane, right through the intersection, and there was no indication on his dashboard that he would be proceeding in any other fashion.
His right turn signal, however, blinked a different intention-a right turn! Little Buddy had accidently crossed the wires, so that when Harry activated the signal there was no signal; when he stopped signaling there was a continuous right turn signal-and there was no response of any kind at any time on the signal-indicator light on the dashboard!
Judith had to make her decision now. She saw Harry's car, saw that is was the only other car at the intersection, saw that the right turn signal was on, and decided that her safest course was to accelerate through the intersection, since Harry was intending to make a right turn. Harry, expecting her to stop, had no intention of turning, of course, but rather proceeded forward.
Suddenly there was an enormous crash of metal against metal as the two cars collided. Brakes screeched, tires swerved, metal twisted, and there was general chaos in the morning air.
At first, Harry was too stunned to move. Then he felt the numbness in his fingers, realized his arm was broken, and it hit him-he'd had an accident, maybe even a serious one! He looked over at the other car and saw Judith slumped over the steering wheel, apparently unconscious. He had to do something fast! He forced his door open with his good arm and struggled out of his car. As he took his first step toward her car to see how she was, he felt a sharp pain as his knee buckled under him.
Louella Williams, and elderly woman who lived in the house on the southeast corner of Higgins and Pruitt, had been watering her flowers when the accident occurred. She had seen the whole thing. At the initial impact she shuddered, then raced inside and called the police.
Within seven minutes the authorities were on the scene. Both Harry and Judith were taken away by ambulance. Officer Skip Evans took statements from Harry, Judith (who had regained consciousness), and Louella Williams.