Bennett v. Winquest

MADDOX, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of the defendant in a personal injury action brought as a result of a rear-end automobile collision. The sole issue is whether the trial court erred in denying the plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial, and more specifically, whether the trial court improperly charged the jury on the “sudden emergency doctrine.”

The accident happened while plaintiff Shirley Bennett, accompanied by her mother, plaintiff Lucille Myers,1 was traveling in the right eastbound lane of Interstate Highway 20 between Birmingham and…