BOISE, Idaho (Legal Newsline) – Costco could be liable for the injuries a man sustained when an elderly driver pinned him into another car in the parking lot.
The Idaho Supreme Court ruled Oct. 5 for John Oswald, who was struck at the Costco in Boise by the late Frank Meyers in 2017. Meyers was 92 years old at the time.
Oswald was walking to his car using a walkway in front of the store. The decision overturns summary judgment in the lower court in favor of Costco.
“(W)e find it difficult to adopt a rule of law that would allow a business to escape liability for a plaintiff’s injuries sustained from an errant vehicle based on a lack of foreseeability when the business had had three similar incidents on prior occasions,” Justice Roger Burdick wrote.
“There is still a possibility that jury might find that the defendant was not negligent under such circumstances, depending upon the specific facts of the incident at issue and the prior incidents.”
The court wrote that it would align itself with recent cases that held the foreseeability of a car accident is a question of fact, not of law.
Meyers was driving a Cadillac Deville onto a walkway while trying to park in a handicap spot. He had missed the spot to the left and struck the right side of the adjacent Ford Taurus.
“Apparently confused, Meyers pressed on the gas, causing him to sideswipe the Taurus and driver over a wheel stop and into the walk way where he struck Oswald,” Burdick wrote.
Oswald was pressed between Meyers’ car and another. When Meyers kept pressing the gas, an onlooker intervened by taking the keys out of the ignition. The driver of the other car went in reverse to free Oswald.
Oswald sustained “substantial and severe injuries,” the decision says.