Stack
Usually attorneys exchange briefs, but in a Madison County personal injury suit they exchange truck parts.
Last month Circuit Judge Daniel Stack ordered Georgia trailer maker Cottrell Inc. to give attorney Brian Wendler a wheel strap and a mechanism for tightening the strap.
Stack ordered Wendler to give Cottrell attorney Amy Lorenz-Moser an idler that Wendler blames for his client's injuries.
Lorenz-Moser must must give the idler back to Wendler, but Wendler can keep the strap and the tightener if he pays for them.
Wendler represents truck driver Keith Yount, who sued Cottrell last year.
Yount claims the idler broke while he loaded vehicles on a trailer.
For Cottrell, Lorenz-Moser asked Stack for a chance to test the idler.
Wendler resisted, but on Oct. 24 Stack decided Cottrell could pick up the idler within 14 days and ship it to its experts.
Stack wrote, "Cottrell will package and ship the subject idler in a manner that will reasonably ensure that it is not damaged during the shipping process…"
He allowed "various non-destructive examinations and inspections" of the idler.
He advised Cottrell not to permanently change the idler or alter its characteristics.
He told Cottrell to ship it back to Wendler within 90 days.
To complete the exchange he ordered Cottrell to give Wendler the wheel strap and the tightener within 20 days.
He wrote, "Plaintiffs shall either return said items after inspection or agree to pay the list price for same."