American Security Insurance v. Insurance Co. of North America

220 So. 2d 163, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5269
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 3, 1969
DocketNo. 3360
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 220 So. 2d 163 (American Security Insurance v. Insurance Co. of North America) 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
American Security Insurance v. Insurance Co. of North America, 220 So. 2d 163, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5269 (La. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

BARNETTE, Judge.

Plaintiff’s suit was dismissed by the trial court on a judgment maintaining the peremptory exception of prescription and plaintiff has appealed.

On September 20, 1967, the plaintiff, American Security Insurance Company, filed suit in tort against Insurance Company of North America seeking recovery of $1,195.82, the amount paid by plaintiff for repair of its insured’s automobile damaged in a collision on February 15, 1966, with an automobile insured by defendant. The recovery sought by plaintiff represented the damage to its insured’s automobile less the deductible amount of $100 paid by the insured, Baxter B. Jenkins. Plaintiff [164]*164claimed its right of action for the $1,195.82 as subrogee of Jenkins. Negligence of defendant’s insured as the proximate cause of the automobile collision is the alleged cause of action upon which recovery is sought.

The suit was filed more than one year after the accident and prescription had already accrued in the absence of a legal interruption. We have examined plaintiff’s petition carefully and fail to find therein any allegation of a fact or circumstance indicating an interruption of prescription. Apparently the exception could have been maintained on the face of the petition. The court might then have granted leave to amend the petition to remove the objection pleaded by the exception under the authority of LSA-C.C.P. art. 934.

In spite of plaintiff’s failure to plead the facts, it is evident that both plaintiff and defendant concede a factual circumstance, which, if properly pleaded, would have presented the issue of interruption of prescription. As a matter of fact, it was the defendant who supplied the factual representations, which plaintiff should have alleged in its petition. In a memorandum in support of its exception of prescription, filed simultaneously with the exception, the defendant apprised the court of the previous suit filed timely by plaintiff’s insured Jenkins against defendant’s insured Johnson for damages, including an item of $100 (the deductible amount) paid by Jenkins for repair of his automobile. The previous suit was in another division of the same court and the court, upon proper foundation being laid, might have taken judicial notice thereof; hut there is nothing in the record before us to indicate that it did or how the facts pertinent to the issue here were presented to the court, except that all parties at least tacitly concurred and by mutual consent agreed that the facts were true and should be considered by the court. Briefs filed in both courts and the arguments here suggest nothing to the contrary. Therefore, we will make no point of plaintiff’s failure to plead the facts upon which it must rely for interruption of prescription. LSA-C.C.P. art. 1154.

T,he undisputed facts are: On February 15, 1966, there was a collision of two automobiles, one belonging to Jenkins and driven by his minor son, and the other owned by Johnson. Jenkins brought suit timely against Johnson and his insurer, Insurance Company of North America, alleging negligence on the part of Johnson and sought, on behalf of his minor son, recovery of damages for personal injuries, and, individually, among other special items, recovery of $100, the deductible amount paid by him for automobile repair. On June 26, 1967, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff and an appeal was taken to this court. Judgment was amended and affirmed by this court in an opinion handed down July 15, 1968. Jenkins v. Johnson, La.App., 212 So.2d 721.

The present suit was filed September 20, 1967, after trial and judgment in the district court in the first suit and during pendency of appeal. The question is whether the filing of the suit by plaintiff’s insured Jenkins, seeking recovery of damages of $100 to his automobile interrupted prescription running against Jenkins’ insurer with respect to its claim of $1,195.82, representing the balance of the repair bill for which it was subrogated.

The plaintiff bases its contention on the premise that there is but one cause of action arising out of the accident and that Jenkins’ timely suit “ * * * interrupted prescription in favor of all parties to whom the cause of action was common pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:5801.” It also cites and relies upon the authority of National Surety Corp. v. Standard Accident Ins. Co., 247 La. 905, 175 So.2d 263 (1965) and Carona v. Radwin, 195 So.2d 465 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1967).

LSA-R.S. 9:5801 is as follows:

“All prescriptions affecting the cause. of action therein sued upon are interrupted as to all defendants, including [165]*165minors or interdicts, by the commencement of a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction and in the proper venue. When the pleading presenting the judicial demand is filed in an incompetent court, or in an improper venue, prescription is interrupted as to the defendant served by the service of process.”

The source authority of this section is Act 39 of 1932 as amended by Act 31 of 1960. Orginally this section was enacted to overcome the obviously bad feature of prior law which required as a condition for interruption of prescription not only that suit be filed but that service of citation be made before the prescriptive period had run. The amendment of 1960 was enacted upon recommendation of the Louisiana Law Institute to conform with the provisions of LSA-C.C. art. 3518 to provide for interruption of prescription as to the defendant served with process when suit has been filed in a court of incompetent jurisdiction.

Here we have only one defendant and two plaintiffs. The cause of action upon which both plaintiffs have brought suit arose out of a single alleged tort committed by defendant’s insured. The specific question presented by this case seems not to have been clearly resolved in our jurisprudence. Some confusion results from attempts to apply literally every word of the statute. For instance, “all prescriptions affecting the cause of action therein sued upon * * * ” is interpreted by the plaintiff literally to mean that once a suit has been timely filed on a single or common cause of action prescription is interrupted as to all plaintiffs. For authority for this position it refers to the following language of the Supreme Court in National Surety Corp. v. Standard Accident Ins. Co., supra, 175 So.2d at 268:

“We find that one principal cause of action resulting from a single tort exists herein — namely, the alleged negligence of Brown Ferguson. Marquette Casualty Company v. Brown, [235 La. 245, 103 So.2d 269] supra; Lewis v. Republic Supply Co., La.App., 155 So.2d 200. As stated supra, the employer’s insurer alleged negligence, and the employee adopted his allegations. Recovery is predicated upon the proof of the sole or joint negligence of Ferguson; if damages accrue to Tyson, benefits and expenses paid by plaintiff must be subtracted from them.
* * * ‡ * *
“LSA-R.S. 9:5801, supra, recites that all prescriptions affecting the ■ cause of action sued upon are interrupted as to all defendants by the commencement of a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction. Certainly the claim of Tyson affected the one cause of action alleged by plaintiff; it follows that any prescription applying to the filing of an intervention by Tyson was interrupted by the timely filing of suit by the employer’s insurer, especially, as stated supra, when the intervention was filed before answer.

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Bluebook (online)
220 So. 2d 163, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-security-insurance-v-insurance-co-of-north-america-lactapp-1969.