Lawrence Hardesty is an over-the-road tractor-trailer truck driver who picked up a load of stadium seating equipment for the NFL stadium under construction in Baltimore. The equipment was packaged in large corrugated cardboard boxes weighing several hundred pounds. The shipper, American Seating Co., loaded the trailer while Hardesty remained in the cab of his truck doing "paperwork" and napping. Considerable open space existed between the boxes and the rear door of the trailer. The evidence showed that Hardesty failed to properly examine the load bars used to secure the boxes from movement during transit. When Hardesty arrived at the Baltimore destination, he opened the rear trailer door and boxes at the end of trailer fell out and injured him. Hardesty brought a personal injury negligence action against the shipper contending it improperly loaded the trailer. American Seating Co. responded that Hardesty was contributorily negligent, thus barring his negligence claim. [Hardesty v. American Seating Co.194 F. Supp.2d 447 (D. Md. 2002)]