Fuller

Plaintiff, Ora Lee Fuller, appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of defendant, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Her pleadings allege she was a guest passenger in a Volkswagen automobile when the car struck a hole in the pavement and the right rear tire came off the wheel causing the car to overturn and strike a power pole. In her brief plaintiff describes herself as a quadriplegic as a result of the injuries she suffered in the accident.

Plaintiff’s complaint states Goodyear “negligently and carelessly manufactured, assembled, supplied, serviced, tested, inspected and sold” the Volkswagen’s tire and the tire was “defective and improperly assembled, designed, tested and inspected”; the defendant “carelessly and negligently failed to discover said defects of design, materials and workmanship.”

Goodyear answered the complaint with a general denial and raised defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of the risk. It filed a motion for summary judgment supported by declarations and opposed by a counterdeclaration of plaintiff’s attorney.

The validity of the summary judgment is governed by the sufficiency of Goodyear’s declarations filed in support of…