Mavrikidis v. Petullo

Facts

The Plaintiff, Alice Mavrikidis, was in a collision with one of the defendants, Gerald Petullo. Gerald was operating a dump truck registered to Petullo Brothers, Inc., when he ran through a red light, struck the Plaintiff’s car, hit a pole, and then overturned which spilled the truck’s contents onto the Plaintiff’s car. At the time of the collision, Gerald was transporting roughly 11 tons of hot asphalt, which had been loaded onto the truck by Newark Asphalt Corporation. Gerald was transporting the hot asphalt to his job site at Clar Pine Servicenter which was a retail gas station and automotive repair shop.

Clar Pine’s owner, Karl Pascarello, was renovating the gas station and hired Gerald’s father, Angelo Petullo, and Petullo Brothers, Inc. to do the asphalt and concrete work at the job site. The Petullos supplied the labor, equipment, concrete, and most of the asphalt that was required for the job. Pascarello had limited participation in the asphalt work consisting of payment for three loads of asphalt (including the one in this accident) as well as his direction to pay the asphalt in front of the service station’s bay doors.

On the morning of the collision, Gerald ordered twenty tons of asphalt from Newark Asphalt’s plant. Newark Asphalt’s employees loaded nearly 11 tons of asphalt at temperatures between 300 and 310 degrees Fahrenheit onto Gerald’s truck and 9 tons onto a second truck. During trial, an expert witness testified that the trucks were overloaded and that if Gerald’s truck had not been overloaded, he would have had better control over the truck.