Purchal v. Patterson

This is an appeal from a jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs in a negligence action arising out of a rear-end collision between two trucks. The case was tried under a pure comparative fault theory.1 The jury returned special verdicts attributing ten per cent of the total causal negligence to plaintiff Matthew F. Purchal and ninety per cent to defendant John H. Patterson. Defendants contend that these findings are disproportionate and are not supported by the evidence. We disagree and affirm.2

Purchal, an over-the-road truck driver, left his employer’s plant in Columbus, Nebraska to deliver a…