Gaul v. Tourtellotte

Plaintiff Teresa Gaul, sister of co-plaintiff Willard Gaul, was operating an automobile they jointly owned when it collided with a vehicle driven by defendant. They brought this negligence action to recover for the damage to their vehicle, and defendant counterclaimed for personal injuries. Each side pleaded that the other was collaterally estopped to recover its loss because of alleged determinations of negligence between Teresa and defendant in prior litigation which arose from the same accident. Trial was before the court without a jury on the issue of the alleged estoppels only.…