Wrongful death suit claims trucking company did not have ‘level parking lot’

A lawsuit involving a driver crushed to death by his own truck highlights the importance of safe truck parking and loading areas.

Irving, Texas-based Tarango Trucking scored a minor victory in a federal appeals court after a Fifth Circuit panel found that the company’s insurance company, Penn-America Insurance, must defend it in a wrongful death lawsuit. A driver for another company was killed on Tarango’s property after his truck rolled back, crushing and pinning him underneath.

In March 2020, SirMyron Birks-Russell, a driver for Waxahachie, Texas- based WS Excavation, arrived at Tarango’s facility to drop off a shipment. While operating the hydraulic lift on the trailer during unloading, the tractor’s braking system disengaged. Consequently, the truck rolled back and struck Birks-Russell. He was still alive while pinned underneath the tractor before succumbing to his injuries.

According to the underlying lawsuit filed in a Texas state court, Tarango’s truck parking lot was “maintained at a dangerous slope,” causing the truck to roll back quickly. Furthermore, the relatively steep slope caused the truck to crash into Birks-Russell’s personal vehicle.

Birks-Russell’s survivors sued WS Excavation for allegedly failing to properly maintain the truck. However, the lawsuit also accuses Tarango of negligence for failing to maintain a level parking lot and loading facility.

“Failing to maintain a level parking lot, where dangerous and heavy equipment [is] routinely offloaded and parked, posed a serious likelihood that this unlevel parking lot would eventually cause serious injury and/or death,” the lawsuit claims. “A level parking lot is required by industry standards and guidelines to prevent dangerous and heavy equipment and trucks from rolling back and causing severe injury or death.”

However, Penn-America Insurance took the matter to a federal district court to contest coverage. The insurance company claimed that the incident falls under the policy’s “auto exclusion” provision. Tarango argues that a “parking exception” nullifies the auto exclusion.

The auto exclusion provision takes the insurance company off the hook when bodily injury or property damage arises out of the ownership, maintenance or use of an “auto,” including operation and loading/unloading.

However, there is an exception to the auto exclusion. The exclusion does not apply to “parking an ‘auto’ on, or on the ways next to, premises you own or rent provided the ‘auto’ is not owned by or rented or loaned to you or the insured.”

A federal district court ruled in favor of Penn-America. The lower court interpreted the exception as reinstating coverage over injuries and property damage that occur during the act of parking, not after a vehicle is parked. Therefore, the parking exception does not apply because Birks-Russell was not injured while parking an auto. Rather, the tractor rolled back and struck him while unloading the trailer, which occurred after he had parked and unhitched the tractor from the trailer.

Tarango appealed the decision. The company argued that allegations that Birks-Russell parked his truck immediately before the incident and that Tarango failed to maintain a level parking lot are claims arising out of parking.

The court of appeals agreed with Tarango’s interpretation of the policy, reversing the lower court’s decision. As a result, Penn-America must defend the trucking company in the wrongful death lawsuit. LL