Champagne v. McDonald

355 So. 2d 1335
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 6, 1978
Docket6267
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 355 So. 2d 1335 (Champagne v. McDonald) 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
Champagne v. McDonald, 355 So. 2d 1335 (La. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

355 So.2d 1335 (1978)

Percy A. CHAMPAGNE, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Dorothy G. McDONALD, and Fireman's Insurance Company, State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., Intervenor, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 6267.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

February 6, 1978.
Rehearing Denied March 29, 1978.

*1337 Domengeaux & Wright by Terry E. Theriot, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellant Percy A. Champagne.

McBride & Brewster by Norman P. Foret, Lafayette, for intervenor State Farm Mutual.

Bean & Rush by Ernest L. Parker, Lafayette, for defendant-appellee Dorothy G. McDonald.

Allen, Gooch & Bourgeois, Ltd. by Randal K. Theunissen, Lafayette, for defendant-appellee Fireman's Ins.

Before GUIDRY, FORET, and JOHNSON, JJ.

GUIDRY, Judge.

The above numbered and entitled matter was consolidated for trial in the district court with Dorothy G. McDonald v. Percy A. Champagne, Jr., and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 355 So.2d 1345 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1978), our docket number 6268. These cases remain consolidated on appeal and we decide both of these cases today. The facts and law are common to each case.

These suits have their common source in an intersectional collision between two vehicles in the City of Lafayette, Louisiana. The instant litigation is between the drivers of the vehicles and their insurers.

In suit number 6267, Percy A. Champagne, Jr. seeks to recover damages for personal injuries, medical expenses, lost wages and the $100.00 deductible under the terms of his insurance policy from Dorothy G. McDonald and her insurer, Fireman's Insurance Company, sustained as a result of the alleged negligence of Ms. McDonald. Percy Champagne's insurer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm), intervened in the suit seeking recovery of $2,201.78, said sum representing the amount paid to Champagne under the collision and medical payments provisions of its policy of insurance issued to him.

Suit number 6268 was brought by Dorothy McDonald in which she seeks recovery against Champagne and State Farm for personal injuries, medical expenses, loss of income and the amount of property damage to her automobile, unpaid by her insurer, sustained in the aforementioned collision as a result of the alleged negligence of Champagne.

After trial of these consolidated cases, the trial court found negligence on the part of each driver, said negligence constituting a proximate cause of the accident. Accordingly, judgment was rendered in each suit dismissing plaintiffs' petitions along with all incidental actions.

Both Champagne and McDonald have perfected appeals from the adverse judgments of the trial court and State Farm has answered these appeals, seeking recognition of its intervention.

The principal issues presented on appeal are:

(1) Was McDonald guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident?

(2) Was Champagne guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident?

*1338 The record in this case establishes the following facts:

The collision occurred at approximately 3:54 A.M. on the morning of October 10, 1974 at the intersection of Southwest Evangeline Thruway and Jefferson Street in the City of Lafayette, Louisiana. The vehicles involved in the accident were a 1974 Ford automobile being operated in a southerly direction on the Evangeline Thruway by McDonald, and a 1972 Chevrolet pickup truck being operated in an easterly direction on Jefferson Street by Champagne. At the intersection, Evangeline Thruway is a multi-lane highway, consisting of three lanes of travel in a southerly direction. Jefferson Street is a four-lane highway running generally east and west, with two lanes of travel in each direction. At the time of the accident, traffic traversing the above intersection was controlled by a semaphoric traffic signal suspended above the center of the intersection. Posted speed limits at the time of the accident were 40 mph for the Thruway and 30 mph for Jefferson Street. Weather conditions were described as clear and dry. The intersection received illumination from street lights and other sources. The record reveals no visual obstructions which would seriously interfere with traffic attempting to negotiate the intersection.

In order to fully comprehend the sequence of events leading up to the accident, it is necessary to describe the intersections encountered by McDonald immediately prior to the accident. A driver traveling south on Southwest Evangeline Thruway will encounter the intersections of Mudd, Simcoe and Third Streets immediately before reaching the Jefferson Street intersection. These intersections are all controlled by semaphoric traffic signals. The normal operating sequence of these signals was "green-caution-red-green."

At the time of the accident, McDonald was employed at Lafayette General Hospital as a respiratory technician. In the early morning hours of October 10, 1974, she was summoned by an emergency call to attend to an infant who was being brought to the hospital with a respiratory difficulty. She left her home and proceeded to the hospital, traveling south along the Southwest Evangeline Thruway.

While on patrol that morning, Officer Kenneth Holleman of the Lafayette City Police Department observed the McDonald vehicle heading south on the Evangeline Thruway at an excessive rate of speed. He clocked her speed at between sixty and seventy mph. After observing her vehicle run the red light at Mudd Street intersection, he stopped her just prior to the Simcoe Street intersection which was approximately three blocks from the accident. She got out of her car and had a conversation with Officer Holloman in which he learned that she was on an emergency call to Lafayette General Hospital. Officer Holleman observed that the emergency flashers on her vehicle were in operation at this time. He gave her a verbal warning and allowed her to proceed. They both reentered their automobiles whereupon McDonald approached the Simcoe Street intersection, looked both ways, and proceeded through said intersection in violation of a red traffic light then facing her lane of travel. Officer Holleman observed the traffic signal at the next intersection (Third Street) turn red as she approached that intersection. He observed her brake lights come on momentarily and then go off again. At this point, he turned off Southwest Evangeline Thruway and lost sight of the McDonald vehicle.

The evidence then indicates that the McDonald automobile converged on the Jefferson Street intersection traveling in the far right lane of the Thruway at approximately the same time as the truck being driven in an easterly direction on Jefferson Street by Champagne.

Champagne is employed as a Deputy Sheriff for St. Martin Parish. On the afternoon prior to the accident, he had attended a fish fry at the Evangeline State Park in St. Martinville, Louisiana, being given by the St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Department as a celebration for those persons passing a refresher course. He arrived at this function at 7:30 or 8:00 P.M. that *1339 evening and stayed until around a quarter to twelve. Champagne testified that he did not consume any alcoholic beverages while at the celebration.

He left the Park alone and drove to the Shangri-La Lounge on La. 94 where he consumed one 10 ounce can of beer. He then proceeded to Fontenot's Lounge in Lafayette where he was to meet some friends. He played pool most of the time there and consumed a total of three cans of beer.

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Bluebook (online)
355 So. 2d 1335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/champagne-v-mcdonald-lactapp-1978.