Adkins v. Fireman's Fund Insurance

296 So. 2d 379
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 28, 1974
DocketNo. 9813
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 296 So. 2d 379 (Adkins v. Fireman's Fund Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adkins v. Fireman's Fund Insurance, 296 So. 2d 379 (La. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

BLANCHE, Judge.

Plaintiff, Thomas R. Adkins, individually and as the administrator of the estate of his minor son, Sean Adkins, instituted this suit for damages sustained when his son was bitten by a dog at the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair on November 4, 1972. Named as defendants are the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair and Trade Show, Inc.; its liability insurer, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company; Mrs. Elizabeth N. Smith, owner of the dog; and her liability insurer, Cumis Insurance Society, Inc. The defendants answered and filed recon-ventional demands against plaintiff, alternatively alleging contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff’s wife and asking for contribution.

The trial judge rendered judgment dismissing plaintiff’s suit against all defendants and further dismissed the reconven-tional demands. From this judgment plaintiff and plaintiffs in reconvention have appealed. We affirm.

Plaintiff contends on appeal that the trial court erred (1) in failing to hold Cumis Insurance Society, Inc., as the insurer of the dog’s owner, liable for all damages sustained by the child by application of the doctrine of strict or absolute liability and further erred (2) in failing to find negligence on the part of all named defendants.

Plaintiffs in reconvention, the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair and Fireman’s [380]*380Fund, urge the alternative demand for contribution on appeal, based on the argument that if the fair were negligent, then Mrs. Adkins was likewise negligent in the supervision of her three-year-old son Sean Adkins. Although plaintiffs in reconvention, Cumis Insurance Society, Inc., and Mrs. Elizabeth N. Smith, also appealed, they do not urge the alternative plea of contribution but suggest that the trial court judgment should be affirmed.

No serious issues of fact are involved in this appeal. The incident took place at the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair where the fair’s annual dog show was being held immediately in front of the agricultural tent. Mrs. Smith, one of the defendants, attended the dog show with her daughter, Jan Smith, and they brought with them to the show four dogs including a five and a half year old Weimaraner named John, two small poodles and a silky terrier. John was tied with a short leash to a post at the entrance to the tent next to the aisle for entrance and exit. The other three dogs were located just across the aisle from John. With the stage thus set, Mrs. Adkins entered the tent with her four children, all of whom had just exited from the petting zoo located on the opposite side of the agricultural tent from the dog show. One of the four children, Sean Adkins, who was nearly three years old at the time, stopped to pet the two poodles. As Sean was doing this, the Weimaraner barked, and the child, with his attention then directed toward the Weimaraner, walked toward the dog with his arms outstretched. When Sean was about an arm’s length away, the dog bit him quite severely around the left eye, causing the damages here sued upon.

The trial judge correctly analyzed the facts as well as the law applicable thereto and applied the same, notwithstanding his feelings that the law should be otherwise. Factually, he found that the dog had not previously exhibited, and did not have, any dangerous propensities and that the owner did not know the dog had any such propensities (outside of killing a cat). As a matter of law, he found the case of Losch v. Travelers Insurance Company, 264 So.2d 240 (La.App., 4th Cir., 1972), writ refused, (262 La. 1176, 266 So.2d 450), to be applicable. That case held:

“The owner’s liability for an animal that causes injury is predicated upon LSA-C.C. Articles 2321, 2315, and 2316. These articles, taken in conjunction, have received uniform interpretation by the courts of this state regarding cases of a nature similar to the present one. Thus, for an owner of a domesticated animal (which is regarded as inherently safe) to be considered at fault and therefore liable for injuries caused by the animal, the animal must manifest a dangerous or vicious temperament, recognizable as such by a reasonable person, so that the owner knew, or through legal consequence should have known, from a prior occurrence or experience, that the animal evinces vicious or dangerous propensities. Voelker v. Liberty Mutual Insurance, 190 So.2d 136 (La.App., 4th Cir., 1966); Cavallino v. Craft Motor Company, 244 So.2d 333 (La.App., 4th Cir., 1971). See Tamburello v. Jaeger, 249 La. 25, 184 So.2d 544 (1966); Talley v. Travelers Insurance Company, 197 So.2d 92 (La.App., 1 Cir. 1967).” (Losch v. Travelers Insurance Company, 264 So.2d 240, 241)

In Losch (262 La. 1176, 266 So.2d 450) in answer to a writ of review to the Supreme Court, the application was denied with the comment, “there is no error of law in the judgment complained of.” Justices Summers, Barham and Tate, being of the opinion that the writ should have been granted, stated:

“ * * * [T]he writ should be granted to examine the liability of an owner of [an] animal for damage caused by it in light of Civil Code Article 2321 as written and originally interpreted.”

In an earlier decision from the Second Circuit, Rolen v. Maryland Casualty Com[381]*381pany, 240 So.2d 42 (La.App., 2nd Cir., 1970), writ refused, 256 La. 1149, 241 So. 2d 252, Judge Bolin accurately stated the law on the subject in denying recovery from the owner of a dog that had two bites. An application for writs was filed and the Supreme Court denied writs (256 La. 1149, 241 So.2d 252), stating, “Under the facts found by the court of appeal, the result is correct.” In concurring in the denial of the writs, Justice Tate stated:

“La.Civil Code Art. 23 [2] 1, according to its original intent, provides strict liability for the keepers of animals which injure humans, with the burden upon him to exculpate himself from the presumption of fault by showing fortuitous event or the imprudence of the victim, Delisle v. Bourriague, 105 La. 77, 29 So. 731 (1901); Planiol, Civil Law Treatise, Vol. 2, Sections 918-922 (LSLI translation, 1959); Surveyer, Delictual Responsibility, 8 Tul.L.Rev. 53, 66-68 (1933). Recent jurisprudential interpretations have varied the application of the article, as shown by the court of appeal opinion. Until this court reexamines the question, there is no error of law under the facts found.”

Counsel for appellant relies on those same authorities to which Justice Tate referred in his concurrence of the denial of the writ.

We have examined the case of Delisle v. Bourriague, 105 La. 77, 29 So. 731 (1901), and find that it does not stand for the rule of absolute liability. The language from the opinion relied upon is as follows:

“ * * * ‘there is conflict of evidence as to the character of the dogs and defendant’s knowledge thereof, but we should accept the conclusion of fact of the judge, who heard and saw the witnesses. But, were this otherwise, we do not think that the doctrine that scien-ter is a prerequisite to the liability of the owner finds lodgment in our law and jurisprudence. Not only does any act whatever of man that causes damages to another oblige him by whose fault it happened to repair, but he is responsible for damages resulting from his negligence or imprudence, caused by the acts of the thing which he has in his custody. Rev.Civ.Code arts. 2315, 2316, 2318, are positive and equivocal. The owner of the animal is answerable for the damage he has caused.

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Related

Adkins v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.
313 So. 2d 328 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1975)
Thomas R. Adkins, Inc. v. Fireman's Fund Ins.
303 So. 2d 184 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1974)

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296 So. 2d 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adkins-v-firemans-fund-insurance-lactapp-1974.