Ty Brown settled a case on behalf of the family of a 16-year-old who was killed in a traffic accident near Grove Hill, Alabama. The young man’s SUV struck a pool of surface water that had accumulated from rainfall, causing the SUV to hydroplane, cross into oncoming traffic and collide with another car. The SUV continued off the road and struck a tree; the 16-year-old was killed on impact. The case focused on the hazardous condition of the roadway and why water collected on the surface of that particular section of U.S. 84. It was undisputed that there were ruts in the roadway; the ruts channelized the rain water and allowed it to pool and stand. The lawsuit blamed the asphalt company that had resurfaced that stretch of roadway seven years earlier, long past the time the state accepted the work.
Alabama’s Unique Rule for Defective Products
A Product Liability Framework Unique to Alabama Alabama takes a genuinely different approach to defective product claims than most other states, one built around a doctrine found nowhere else in the country. Understanding how this framework actually works matters...