LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – A driver and his employer will face a lawsuit after he ran over and killed a pedestrian who was attempting to cross a seven-lane highway but not using a crosswalk.
The Michigan Court of Appeals on Oct. 29 vacated a January 2019 victory for defendants Stanley Cornell and Metro Controls, who are fighting a lawsuit brought by the Estate of John Conforti.
The decision admits that Conforti was “negligently attempting” to cross Van Dyke Avenue in Warren, there is evidence Conforti was visible to Cornell for a sufficient amount of time to be avoided.
“Cornell’s front seat passenger clearly saw Conforti before the collision, and Cornell’s own deposition testimony established that he was not looking straight ahead at the roadway,” the decision says.
“Indeed, Cornell testified that he was looking at the driveways on the right side of the road to see if any vehicles were pulling out, and Conforti was coming into Cornell’s lane of traffic from the left.”
Further proceedings will determine if Cornell was operating the pickup truck in a negligent manner.
Cornell was driving in the farthest lane to the right in Van Dyke Avenue on May 10, 2017, and he was going at or below the speed limit.
The weather was sunny and clear, the road was dry and traffic was moderate to heavy, the decision says. Conforti had decided not to walk the quarter-mile to the closest crosswalk and had used brief gaps in traffic to cross the first six lanes. However, he was struck by Cornell when he’d almost made it across.
Cornell called 911, but Conforti died at a local hospital. The defendants fought the subsequent lawsuit by arguing Conforti was more than 50% at fault for the accident, which would trigger protections in the No-Fault Act.
A police report said Conforti was visible for four seconds before he was struck, leading the Court of Appeals to rule that a jury could find Cornell was negligent.