Woman wants company to preserve vehicle involved in collision

The wife of a recently deceased driver has filed a temporary restraining order against U-Haul, asking the court to prohibit the company from altering a trailer involved in an accident in which her husband died.

Katie Lauren Hubbard Curtis claims she and her husband, Steven Scott Curtis, were traveling in the 500 block of Interstate Highway 10 E. on Oct. 20, 2011, when they were forced to come to a sudden stop due to a previous crash involving a U-Haul.

Defendant Leo N. Garica failed to control his speed and rear-ended the vehicle in which the Curtises rode, according to the complaint filed Oct. 25 in Jefferson County District Court.

Because of the collision, Steven Scott Curtis sustained fatal injuries while Katie Curtis and the couple’s child, Beckham Scott Curtis, were hospitalized, the suit states.

Movant is investigating the case on behalf of Katie Curtis, but has not been allowed to view or inspect the U-Haul involved in the collision, the complaint says. Katie Curtis claims she is now “concerned that the subject vehicles and trailer will either be moved, altered or destroyed.”

Movant anticipates that it will file a lawsuit in relation to the collision, but says it needs to examine the evidence before doing so.

“Without the opportunity for the experts to view the vehicles and trailer in this condition, Movant’s experts would be deprived of necessary and valuable information and, perhaps, the opportunity to present an essential element of Movant’s cause of action,” the suit states.

In her complaint, Katie Curtis is seeking a temporary restraining order that would prevent the defendants from destroying or altering the U-Haul and other relief the court deems just.

Jane S. Leger of Provost Umphrey Law Firm in Beaumont will be representing her.

The case has been assigned to Judge Donald Floyd, 172nd District Court.

Case No. E193-404