McCormick v. Kopmann

Lewis McCormick was killed in a car accident involving a truck driven by Lorence Kopmann (defendant). His widow (plaintiff) sued Kopmann for negligent driving, a claim that required McCormick to have been free of contributory negligence, and separately, in the alternative, sued a tavern's owners for over-serving McCormick alcohol before the crash, a theory premised on McCormick's own intoxication. Kopmann moved to dismiss on the ground that the two claims were mutually exclusive and could not both stand, though no defendant sought to sever the claims. The motion was denied, evidence at trial conflicted about McCormick's sobriety, and the jury found for the widow against Kopmann; Kopmann appealed.