Beard v. Seamon

175 So. 2d 671, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4079
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 24, 1965
DocketNo. 6397
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 175 So. 2d 671 (Beard v. Seamon) 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
Beard v. Seamon, 175 So. 2d 671, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4079 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is an action in tort resulting from an automobile collision. We believe it necessary to give a detailed recitation of the undisputed facts reflected by the record herein. Mr. Joseph C. Seamon, one of the parties defendants, was employed by Mr. John E. Mutrie, another of the parties defendants as his assistant; Mr. Mutrie being a distributor or dealer for the Times Picayune newspaper in Baton Rouge. In addition to his employment as Mr. Mutrie’s assistant, Mr. Seamon also had an individual paper route. The evidence in the record indicates that Mr. Seamon would arise at about 3:30 every morning, sometimes as a result of a telephone call from Mr. Mutrie and sometimes as a result of a telephone call from Mr. Mutrie’s answering service. Upon arising, he would get into his own personal automobile and then drive to Mr. Mutrie’s office where the various papers to be delivered by each of the route men or delivery men were stacked in groups to be picked up by those men. He would pick up these papers, proceed to deliver them throughout his entire route, return to his home at about 6:30 in the morning and then proceed to go about his duties as Mr. [673]*673Mutrie’s assistant. These duties consisted primarily of collecting from accounts such as drugstores, hotels, etc., and distributing the New Orleans States-Item, the afternoon paper.

In his capacity as Mr. Mutrie’s assistant, Mr. Seamon was paid a salary of $90.00 a week and was given an allowance of $25.00 a week to compensate him for the use of his own personal automobile. In his capacity as a route man or a delivery man for Mr. Mutrie, Mr. Seamon made $.48 per customer per month on the newspapers which he delivered on his route and in addition, was given a separate car allowance by Mr. Mu-trie amounting to $75.00 per month for the use of his automobile in connection with delivery to his individual customers.

On October 20, 1961, Mr. Seamon, after having been awakened by a telephone call from Mr. Mutrie, dressed, got into his automobile and proceeded toward Mr. Mu-trie’s office to pick up his morning newspapers to deliver to the customers on his route. While still on his way to the office, and before he reached it, Mr. Seamon’s vehicle became involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle belonging to the Sheriff of the Parish of East Baton Rouge and occupied by two Deputy Sheriffs. The passenger in the Sheriff’s vehicle, C. Warren Beard, subsequently filed this suit alleging that he suffered personal injury, and naming as defendants, Joseph C. Seamon and his liability insurer, American Employers Insurance Company; John E. Mutrie, Jr., Mr. Seamon’s employer; The Times Picayune Publishing Corporation, and The Travelers Insurance Company. The petition alleges that Mr. Seamon was an employee of The Times Picayune Publishing Corporation and that he was engaged in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident. The petition further alleges that at the time of the accident there was in force and in effect a policy of insurance issued by The Travelers Insurance Company which insured the Times Picayune Publishing Corporation and/or Joseph C. Seaman and/or John E. Mutrie, Jr. against liability.

After filing of the petition, The Times Picayune Publishing Corporation and The Travelers Insurance Company moved for a summary judgment dismissing them from the suit by reason of the fact that Joseph C. Seamon was not, at the time of the accident, engaged in the course and scope of his employment in that he had not yet begun delivering papers or performing any duties at all in connection with his occupation on that particular day. The Motion for Summary Judgment further urged that the suit as against The Travelers Insurance Company be dismissed because under the terms of the policy issued by The Travelers Insurance Company, this accident was not one to which the policy afforded coverage.

On March 6, 1963, the Honorable Jess Johnson, Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial District Court in and for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, rendered judgment maintaining the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Times Picayune Publishing Corporation and The Travelers Insurance Company, and dismissed the plaintiff’s suit as to those defendants. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff timely filed a motion for a new trial, which was granted. The Motion for Summary Judgment was thereafter reargued before the Honorable Fred A. Blanche, Jr., Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, who, on September 3, 1964, rendered judgment reinstating the judgment of the Court rendered on March 6, 1963, and granting the Motion for Summary Judgment and dismissing plaintiff’s suit as to The Times Picayune Publishing Corporation and The Travelers Insurance Company. It is from this judgment granting the Motion for Summary Judgment that the plaintiff has perfected this appeal.

We believe that this case resolves itself into two questions; first: Can The Times Picayune Publishing Corporation be held liable for the actions of Mr. Seamon under the Doctrine of Respondeat Superior under [674]*674the facts of the present case; and secondly: whether or not either Mr. Seamon and/or his vehicle were insured by the policy of insurance issued by The Travelers Insurance Company.

With reference to the first question, we believe that the record clearly establishes the pattern, nature and extent of Mr. Sea-mon’s duties, both as a route carrier, or delivery man, and as assistant to Mr. Mutrie. We believe that the record amply supports the fact that at the time of the collision, Mr. Seamon was on his way to work and had not yet begun to perform the business of his employer, if the Times Picayune Publishing Corporation can be considered to have been his employer. In any event, Mr. Seamon had not yet begun to perform his duties for any employer.

The jurisprudence with reference to whether or not an employee in going to and from his place of employment is considered as acting within the scope and during the course of his employment to such an extent as to render his employer liable to third persons for his negligent acts is less than absolute, primarily by reason of the fact that each of the cases concerned with this problem have been considered in the light of their own particular facts.

The general rule is that an employer is not liable for the negligent acts of his employee while the employee is on his way to or from his employment.

This Court considered and rendered judgment in the case of O’Brien v. Traders and General Insurance Company, 136 So.2d 852. In that case, we quoted extensively from the opinion of the distinguished Trial Judge, which reviewed exhaustively all of the cases relative to an employer’s liability for negligent acts of an employee while going to and from his place of employment. In the O’Brien case we held that an employee of LSU’s Agricultural Extension Service who resided in Winnsboro, Louisiana, and who at the time of the accident was in route to LSU in Baton Rouge to attend a meeting at which he had been ordered to be present and for which meeting, hotel accommodations were arranged for him and for which travel he was paid mileage at the rate of $.02 per mile, was in the course and scope of his employment. Among the cases cited in the opinion were some in which it was found that the employee was acting within the course and scope of his employment and some wherein it was held that the employee was not within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident. Each of these cases were considered on their own merits and on the particular facts set forth therein.

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Bluebook (online)
175 So. 2d 671, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beard-v-seamon-lactapp-1965.