Stevens v. Ackman

I

Facts and Procedural History

On December 16, 1994, seventeen-year-old Corey C. Banks died in an automobile accident on Roosevelt Avenue (also called Roosevelt Road) in Middletown, Ohio. Banks was a passenger in an automobile operated by Emily J. Duff, now known as Emily J. Ackman, a classmate of his at Middletown High School. Duffs vehicle went left of center in a heavy rain and collided with an oncoming vehicle. When police arrived at the scene, Banks was dead.

*183On December 13, 1996, plaintiff-appellant Shira Sue Stevens (the mother of Banks and the administrator of his estate) filed a…