Coleman v. Argonaut Insurance

187 So. 2d 495, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5065
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 2, 1966
DocketNo. 1712
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 187 So. 2d 495 (Coleman v. Argonaut 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
Coleman v. Argonaut Insurance, 187 So. 2d 495, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5065 (La. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinions

FRUGÉ, Judge.

This is a suit for damages sustained by plaintiff in an automobile collision between the passenger automobile in which plaintiff was a guest and a lowboy trailer owner by Flenniken Construction Company and insured by Argonaut Insurance Company. The automobile in which plaintiff was a passenger at the time of the collision was being driven by her minor son, Stanley B. Coleman. Argonaut Insurance Company filed a third party demand against Everett A. Coleman, individually and as administrator of the estate of his minor son, Stanley B. Coleman, alleging that Stanley B. Coleman was guilty of negligence proximately causing the accident, and praying for judgment against Everett A. Coleman for a contribution as a joint tort-feasor in the event judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff and against Argonaut Insurance Company.

On the trial of the merits before a jury, there was judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $7,800, and by special interrogatories submitted to the jury, the jury determined Flenniken to have been guilty of negligence proximately causing the collision and also found plaintiff’s son, Stanley B. Coleman, guilty of negligence proximately causing the accident. Judgment was also rendered in favor of Argonaut Insurance Company and against. Everett A. Coleman individually and as administrator of the estate of his minor son for contribution of one-half of the $7,800 judgment rendered on the main demand against Argonaut Insurance Company.

From said judgments Argonaut Insurance Company and Everett A. Coleman have perfected this appeal to this court.

At about S :30 A.M. on October 23, 1963, plaintiff Johnnie Ruth Coleman, age 39 and mother of ten children, was a passenger in an automobile owned by her husband, Everett A. Coleman, and operated at the time by her sixteen year old son, Stanley B. Coleman. The automobile was proceeding in a northerly direction on Lake Street in the City of Lake Charles at what plaintiff alleges to be a reasonable speed, when it collided with the rear end of a lowboy trailer with a dolly astride it, that had been disconnected from a 1961 Chevrolet truck [498]*498which was parked at the east curb of Lake Street.

Plaintiff alleged that the trailer was unusual in design and was parked on a city street approximately two and one-half feet from the curbing without flares, lights, visible reflectors or warning markers, at night, unattended, all of which is relied upon as constituting actionable negligence on the defendant’s insured as being a proximate cause of the collision.

In answer to plaintiff’s allegations, defendants pleaded a general denial and by an amended answer alleged that the plaintiff’s minor son was the sole and proximate cause of the collision- This act of negligence of the plaintiff’s son and on the part of the plaintiff is set forth to be the fact that plaintiff’s minor son was driving without his eyeglasses when his vision was so poor that he could not see objects that a person with normal vision could see and that accordingly his failure to see the truck and trailer, which was parked under or near a street light, before he did was a direct and proximate cause of the accident. It was then alleged that plaintiff, riding as a passenger with her minor son when she knew that his vision was defective without his glasses, assumed the risk and so was barred from recovery.

Before going into possible error of the lower court, a description of the lowboy trailer that Stanley Coleman collided with should be made. The lowboy trailer in question is of the usual heavy duty type of construction, with a flat bed of approximately 35 feet in length. At the time of the collision the lowboy had been disengaged from the tractor and so all electrical warning or stopping signal lights were disconnected and not functioning at such time. The tractor or cab was equipped with headlights, cab lights and rear lights, which were burning, along with two headache bar lights. An examination of photographs identified as Exhibits P-1 (Tr. 112), P-2 (Tr. 113), P-3 (Tr. 116), D-5 (Tr. 130) and D-9 (Tr. 113-A) clearly indicates that the headlights, cab lights and headache bar lights would have only been visible from a frontal approach to the truck. The lowboy and dolly attached thereon, having been disconnected from and placed directly behind the truck, should have been visible only from the light given off by the overhanging street light. The photograph identified as Exhibit “D-ll” (Tr. 135), indicates that the rear lights of the tractor or cab would have been extremely difficult to see by a motorist approaching from the rear.

Defendant and third party plaintiff-appellant’s assignments of error Nos. 1 and 2 are that the jury erred in finding negligence on the part of Flenniken Construction Company or that this negligence was the proximate cause of the collision. Plaintiff’s charges of negligence on the part of Flenniken Construction Company are basically five in number; the failure of Flenniken’s employee to have lights on the lowboy trailer, the failure to put out flares to warn approaching motorists of the stopped truck, the failure to park the truck off the paved portion of the street when it was practical to do so, in violation of Lake Charles City Code, Section 12-70, and, furthermore, in violation of City Code Section 12-9, in not parking the truck and lowboy within the proper distance from the curbing.

The type of construction of the lowboy trailer here involved, (plus the fact that the dolly was astride said lowboy), falls within the classification the courts of this state have established as being of such a peculiar and unusual nature as to remove it from the usual category of vehicles which could and should be easily observed by drivers on the streets and highways of this state. Lovelace v. Gowan, La.App. 2 Cir., 52 So.2d 97; Gaiennie v. Co-operative Produce Co., 196 La. 417, 199 So. 377; Rea v. Dow Motor Co., La.App., 36 So.2d 750; Lynch v. Fisher, La.App., 41 So.2d 692. In addition, on a dark misty night, as it was on the night of the col[499]*499lision, the presence of the tractor cab in itself should have a tendency to attract the attention of drivers approaching from the rear and thereby distract their attention to such a degree as to prevent their observation of the low height projection of an extremely poorly marked lowboy. (See testimony of Stanley B. Coleman, Tr. 301, 302, 303, 305, 335, 336, 345 and 346.) Another factor mitigating against ready observation of the lowboy was its color, combined with the rear tires of the lowboy and the tires of the dolly astride the lowboy, which on a foggy misty night would tend to camouflage the awaiting parked obstacle.

As a result of this factual situation, we must agree with the findings of the jury that Flenniken Construction Company was the proximate cause of the collision, and in so deciding this, we must also come to the decision, as did the jury and the lower court, that Stanley B. Coleman, minor son of plaintiff and driver of the vehicle involved in the collision, was also guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the collision.

As clearly as the record reflects that Flenniken Construction Company was guilty of negligence by its actions, so too does the record reflect Mrs. Coleman’s minor son, Stanley B. Coleman, was guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the collision. The testimony of Stanley B. Coleman (Tr. 322) clearly reflects that he was thoroughly familiar with Lake Street and traveled past the scene of the accident many times at night.

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Bluebook (online)
187 So. 2d 495, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5065, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coleman-v-argonaut-insurance-lactapp-1966.