Baker v. Doe

This is the question presented: May a plaintiff in a personal injury action name as alternate defendants a known person and an *159unknown person1 and allege that the negligence of one or the other, but not both, was the cause of the injury sustained?

The question arose when Thelma D. Baker, the plaintiff, filed a motion for judgment against Ellis Ray Pryor and John Doe, the defendants. The motion alleged that the plaintiff was injured when the vehicle in which she was a passenger was caused to collide with a brick wall after being forced off the highway by “a certain red automobile.” It was then…