Burke v. Schaffner
Ohio Court of Appeals
689 N.E.2d 970 (Ohio Ct. App. 1996)
While Schaffner (defendant) sat in the passenger seat of Malone's running truck and moved over to make room for other passengers, the accelerator was depressed hard, causing the truck to jerk forward and strike Burke (plaintiff), pinning him against a parked car. The Burkes had already settled with Malone before suing Schaffner alone, arguing either Schaffner or Malone must have hit the accelerator; at trial, Malone (in a deposition) and Schaffner (in an affidavit) each denied touching the accelerator, and when Schaffner didn't testify at trial, the Burkes unsuccessfully tried to reopen the case to call her as a rebuttal witness. The jury found for Schaffner, and the Burkes appealed, arguing they were entitled to a directed verdict under the doctrine of alternative liability.
Whether the doctrine of alternative liability, which shifts the burden of proof to co-defendants to disprove causation when it is unclear which of them caused the plaintiff's injury, requires the plaintiff to have named all potentially responsible parties as defendants in the lawsuit.