Brown v. DSI Transports, Inc.

496 So. 2d 478
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 15, 1986
Docket85 CA 0744
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 496 So. 2d 478 (Brown v. DSI Transports, Inc.) 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
Brown v. DSI Transports, Inc., 496 So. 2d 478 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

496 So.2d 478 (1986)

Donald F. BROWN
v.
DSI TRANSPORTS, INC., and National Union Fire Insurance Company.

No. 85 CA 0744.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

October 15, 1986.
Writ Denied December 12, 1986.

*479 Robert L. Kleinpeter, Baton Rouge, for Donald F. Brown.

Wayne T. McGaw, New Orleans, for Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.

*480 Carolyn Pratt Perry, Baton Rouge, for DSI Transport, Inc. & Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co.

Before LOTTINGER, SHORTESS and CARTER, JJ.

SHORTESS, Judge.

This case arose from an accident which occurred in Atmore, Alabama, on October 26, 1981. Donald F. Brown (plaintiff) was injured when the rear wheels of a tractor trailer rolled over him and fractured his hip. He brought suit against the driver's employer, DSI Transports, Inc. (DSI), and its insurer, National Union Fire Insurance Company (National Union). Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation (Kaiser), plaintiff's employer, intervened seeking reimbursement for worker's compensation payments it had made to him. The trial court granted judgment for plaintiff and Kaiser; all parties have appealed.

Kaiser had an agreement to supply alumina to an Exxon plant in Atmore. DSI was to transport the alumina by truck to Atmore from the Kaiser facility in Baton Rouge. Kaiser sent plaintiff to Atmore to make a record of the delivery and to see that it was properly completed. Immediately prior to the accident, plaintiff was recording the times and quantities of deliveries made to a reactor at the Atmore plant. Ledell Haynes, a DSI employee, had driven a DSI truck from Baton Rouge to Atmore. After unloading the alumina into the reactor, he drove his tractor-trailer a short distance from the reactor. Because another truck was blocking the exit gate, Haynes began backing his truck. He did not see plaintiff standing near the reactor, nor did plaintiff notice the truck approaching him from the direction of the exit gate. The trailer struck plaintiff; he fell and the rear wheels rolled over him, causing a severely comminuted fracture of his hip.

Plaintiff had surgery in Atmore shortly thereafter; a Smith-Peterson nail was used to repair the fracture. When he returned to Baton Rouge, he consulted Dr. John F. Loupe who advised him that the first procedure had not proved successful. Dr. Loupe performed a second operation and removed the Smith-Peterson nail, replacing it with a plate and screw. Plaintiff continued under Dr. Loupe's care through the time of the trial.

The trial judge assessed plaintiff's damages at $558,704.70, but because he found plaintiff 10% contributorily negligent, he reduced the award to $502,834.23, representing the 90% negligence ascribable to DSI. All parties stipulated that Kaiser had made $42,510.20 in worker's compensation payments to plaintiff, and the judge awarded this amount to Kaiser to be paid from the award to plaintiff.

CONFLICT OF LAWS

DSI and National Union present three issues for review: (1) Did the trial court err in applying Louisiana's law of comparative negligence instead of Alabama's law of contributory negligence? (2) Did the trial court err in finding that plaintiff was totally and permanently disabled? (3) Did the trial court err in awarding $200,000.00 in general damages. The latter two are alternative arguments, for the primary contention of the defendants is that Alabama law is the law of this case and that the rule in Alabama at the time of this accident was that contributory negligence is a complete bar to recovery.

Plaintiff's argument requires a two-part analysis. We must decide first what law will govern the question of whether any parties acted negligently and, second, what law should be used to determine the effect of contributory negligence on recovery.

Defendants argue that, because of Alabama's overriding interest in regulating the conduct of persons within the State, the Alabama rule of contributory negligence should apply. This confuses the two separate issues. We recognize Alabama's strong interest in regulating the activities of drivers and pedestrians within its borders. But we see no conflict between the Louisiana and the Alabama standards of negligence; both states impose a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances. More precisely, both recognize that a pedestrian *481 plaintiff can be contributorily negligent if he deviates from this standard. Nelms v. Allied Mills, Co., 387 So.2d 152 (Ala.1980); Turner v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 471 So.2d 709 (La.1985).

Thus, we are not confronted with a conflict of laws when resolving the first question: whether defendant or plaintiff acted negligently.[1] The trial court found that Haynes was 90% negligent. His failure to take adequate care when backing is well established. Plaintiff was aware that he was in a construction area where there was significant vehicular traffic. He testified that the truck had moved forward about 100 to 150 feet before it began to move backward. One witness testified that he saw the impending accident and began blowing his horn and waving at plaintiff, but to no avail. Our reading of the entire record does not indicate that the court was clearly wrong in ascribing 10% negligence to plaintiff and 90% to Haynes.[2]

The second part of this analysis presents a true conflict-of-laws issue: should Alabama's contributory negligence rule or Louisiana's comparative negligence rule be applied? Since we uphold the finding that plaintiff was negligent, application of Alabama's law would prevent his recovery; Louisiana law, the choice of the trial court, would simply reduce his award.

Louisiana has rejected the traditional rule of lex loci delicti. In Jagers v. Royal Indemnity Company, 276 So.2d 309 (La.1973), instead of deciding that the law of the state in which the tort occurred would apply, the court concluded that an interest analysis was the more appropriate method of choosing which law applied. Jagers presented a false conflict of laws in that only one state (Louisiana) had an interest in the application of its laws. Cases following Jagers have adopted an interest analysis when faced with a genuine conflict of laws. Burns v. Holiday Travel, Inc., 459 So.2d 666 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984); Lee v. Ford Motor Company, 457 So.2d 193 (La. App. 2d Cir.1984), writ denied, 461 So.2d 319 (La.1984); Champion v. Panel Era Manufacturing Company, 410 So.2d 1230 (La. App. 3rd Cir.1982), writ denied, 414 So.2d 389 (La.1982). The threshold inquiry is whether at least two states have an interest in the matter; if so, the court must undertake an interest analysis to determine which state has the more significant relationship to the occurrence and the parties. Lee, 457 So.2d at 194-5.

The Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws (1969) (hereafter Restatement) has been used as the guide in resolving choice-of-law questions. Jagers, 276 So.2d at 312; Burns, 459 So.2d at 668. See also Brinkley & West, Inc. v. Foremost Insurance Company, 499 F.2d 928 (5th Cir.1974). The Restatement sets out these guidelines for tort cases:

§ 145. The General Principle

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Bluebook (online)
496 So. 2d 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-dsi-transports-inc-lactapp-1986.