A San Antonio personal injury firm brought suit in Dallas County state court accusing 7-Eleven Inc. of negligence in its use of "unrealistic delivery times" that caused severe injuries to a non-employee.

The lawsuit comes less than three months after a landmark case in Georgia that set precedent in that state and nationwide when a jury awarded $16.2 million to a plaintiff who sued Amazon Logistics over an accident caused by a Fly Fella Logistics driver, working as an Amazon delivery service partner.

That case, Bradfield v. Amazon Logistics, challenged Amazon's long-held assertion that its delivery service partners operate independently.

The Bradfield case involved a catastrophic injury to an eight-year-old boy struck by the delivery van driver while crossing a street. The boy was run over and dragged 21 feet, causing a broken pelvis and a severe degloving injury requiring multiple surgeries.

According to a Bloomberg 2021 report, Amazon Logistics was a defendent in 119 motor vehicle injury lawsuits in 35 states that year. Injuries ranged from minor to catastrophic and even death.

Unrealistic delivery schedules based on Amazon's mandate that drivers adhere to its Amazon "Flex App" has been a common proximate cause argument used by plaintiffs.

However, FindLaw reported that until recently Amazon has been able to avoid liability.

The lawsuit filed in Dallas County 95th District Court, Jesus Chavez v. 7-Eleven Inc., similarly alleges 7-Eleven's pressure on delivery drivers to comply with pre-set delivery times amounts to negligent management, regardless of the driver's employment status.

The lawsuit, spotted on Law.com Radar, was prepared by Lauren M. Horne of DeSouza Injury Lawyers.

It identifies the plaintiff as a resident of a Dallas suburb who on Aug. 3, 2023 was driving on a highway in Denton County when at 1 a.m. a cow suddenly appeared on the road. Unable to avoid the collision, the driver struck the cow, the van rolled over, and he sustained serious injuries, the suit claimed.

Chavez worked for Minnesota-based EA Sween Co. and is alleged in the lawsuit to be a "borrowed employee" of 7-Eleven who received all his instructions from 7-Eleven.

The night of the accident, Chavez states that he had to swap delivery trucks due to mechanical problems, a delay that put him behind schedule. Nevertheless, he attempted to meet his delivery deadlines because "he didn’t want to receive any negative reports from the 7-Eleven convenience store for a delivery made late."

The lawsuit alleges 7-Eleven was negligent in dispatching and creating orders that had unrealistic delivery times ... negligent in management and oversight of deliveries, placing plaintiff on the poorly lit roads with hard to see obstacles, creating a danger to plaintiff and others.

The defendant had not yet answered in the complaint in court and 7-Eleven did not respond to a request for comment by the publishing deadline.

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