Plaintiff Lewis Price is seeking compensation for damages and expenses after the brakes on postal worker Shyrle Kick’s 2006 Honda CRV failed, causing the vehicle to hit Price while he was on his motorcycle at a stoplight.
A lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service and one of its employees will continue after a federal judge in Pennsylvania denied the agency’s request for summary judgment.
Plaintiff Lewis Price is seeking compensation for damages and expenses after the brakes on postal worker Shyrle Kick’s 2006 Honda CRV failed, causing the vehicle to hit Price while he was on his motorcycle at a stoplight, according to the Aug. 26 opinion by U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines of the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Haines found that a genuine issue of material fact existed regarding whether Kick acted as a reasonably prudent person who experienced brake failure and whether USPS negligently maintained the brakes on Kick’s vehicle.
USPS moved in August 2021 to ask the district court to grant summary judgment and to dismiss Price’s claims because the accident was caused by an unexpected brake failure for which she had no notice, the opinion said.
Under the sudden emergency doctrine, Kick cannot be found negligent and cannot be held responsible for damages resulting from the collision.