Darville v. Associated Indemnity Corporation

323 So. 2d 441
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 18, 1975
Docket56358
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 323 So. 2d 441 (Darville v. Associated Indemnity Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Darville v. Associated Indemnity Corporation, 323 So. 2d 441 (La. 1975).

Opinion

323 So.2d 441 (1975)

Lloyd DARVILLE et al.
v.
ASSOCIATED INDEMNITY CORPORATION and Louisiana Department of Corrections.

No. 56358.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

November 3, 1975.
Dissenting Opinion December 18, 1975.

Charles O. Dupont, Allen M. Edwards, Plaquemine, for plaintiffs-applicants.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Carl Roberts, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendantsrespondents.

DIXON, Justice.

This action was brought by Lloyd Darville, Mrs. Ella Darville and Mrs. Lee Ethel Todd Riley for damages for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Made defendants were Huey Martin, an inmate of the Department of Corrections who was serving as a trustee at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, the Louisiana Department of Corrections and its insurer, the Associated Indemnity Corporation. *442 The accident occurred on September 30, 1972 at the intersection of Louisiana Highway 30 and the private road leading out of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, when a truck, owned by the department and driven by Huey Martin, collided with a Volkswagen driven by Mrs. Ella Darville, in which Mrs. Lee Riley was a guest passenger.

Huey Martin was never served, and the trial court sustained an exception based on lack of service. Therefore the lower court's judgment did not affect him. Mrs. Lee Ethel Todd Riley and her husband dismissed their actions prior to trial.

The State of Louisiana, through the Louisiana State Penitentiary and the Department of Corrections, filed an exception of no cause of action, based on the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The trial court overruled the exception, and, on the merits, found that the accident was caused by the negligence of Huey Martin, for which the Department of Corrections and its insurer were liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior. Judgment was rendered in the full sum of $52,061.00 plus interest and costs. The insurer paid plaintiffs to the extent of the policy limits and did not appeal. The Department of Corrections appealed.

On appeal, the First Circuit Court of Appeal amended the trial court's judgment to maintain the exception of no cause of action filed by the Department of Corrections. Darville v. Associated Indemnity Corporation, 311 So.2d 925 (La.App.1st Cir. 1975). We granted certiorari because of the apparent conflict between this decision and the decision of this court in Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans v. Splendour Shipping and Enterprises Company, Inc., 273 So.2d 19 (La. 1973) and cases following.

In the Splendour case, supra, this court reviewed the history and the governmental purpose of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. We recognized that sovereign immunity in Louisiana was a judicially created doctrine, not a constitutionally mandated one. In fact, its constitutional history reflects more the concern of the legislature with the implementation of procedures designed to avoid its effect rather than any desire to foster the growth of the doctrine.[1] Because sovereign immunity was in fact a judicially created exception to the public policy of this state,[2] this court felt the time had come to abrogate the doctrine:

Governmental responsibility is needed more today than ever. There is hardly any sector of private life and activity free from governmental intervention. The myriad State agencies and their employees almost defy inventory, to say nothing of control by the people whom they purport to serve. It has not been the policy of the legislature to permit employees of agencies to injure, intentionally or carelessly, private citizens. It is and should be the policy of the State, enforced through its courts, to require boards and agencies to act responsibly, or be subject to answer in court.

273 So.2d 19, at 25-26, Splendour, supra.

We are further buttressed in our belief that the Splendour decision indeed reflects the proper policy of this state with regard to sovereign immunity by the provisions of *443 the 1974 Constitution. Article 12, sec. 10 of the new constitution states:

Section 10. (A) No Immunity in Contract and Tort. Neither the state, a state agency, nor a political subdivision shall be immune from suit and liability in contract or for injury to person or property.
(B) Waiver in Others Suits. The legislature may authorize other suits against the state, a state agency, or a political subdivision. A measure authorizing suit shall waive immunity from suit and liability.
(C) Procedure; Judgments. The legislature shall provide a procedure for suits against the state, a state agency, or a political subdivision. It shall provide for the effect of a judgment, but no public property or public funds shall be subject to seizure. No judgment against the state, a state agency, or a political subdivision shall be exigible, payable, or paid except from funds appropriated therefor by the legislature or by the political subdivision against which judgment is rendered.[3]

The decision by the First Circuit in the instant case appears to be inconsistent not only with the holding in the Splendour case, but also with the decisions of the other courts of appeal of this state. Indeed, the First Circuit itself, in Jackson v. Doe, 286 So.2d 751 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1973), which involved the issue of charitable immunity, noted:

Thus, plaintiff has good reason to be optimistic, especially in view of the Louisiana Supreme Court's later decision in Board of Commissioners of Port of New Orleans v. Splendour Shipping & Enterprises Company, 273 So.2d 19 (La.1973), wherein the doctrine of governmental immunity from tort liability was abrogated.

At page 753.

The Third Circuit recognized the holding ofSplendour in Traigle v. Parish of Calcasieu, 296 So.2d 411 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1974):

In Splendour, our Supreme Court abolished the defense of sovereign immunity by all state boards and agencies. The Supreme Court stated: "We hold Port of New Orleans, and other such that the Board of Commissioners of the boards and agencies, are not immune from suit for tort." This is a broad rejection of governmental immunity, sufficient to negate the assertion of the defense by any political subdivisions of the state, including police juries. See the comment, Governmental Immunity: The End of "Kings X", 34 La.L.Rev. 69 and the concurring opinion in Pettis v. State Department of Hospitals, 281 So.2d 881 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1973).

The Second Circuit has also recognized the holding in the Splendour decision. In Alford v. North-Central Area Vocational Technical School, 298 So.2d 889, 891 (La. App.2d Cir. 1974), reversed and remanded 310 So.2d 104 (La.1975), the court noted:

As we understand the meaning of the Splendour decision, the sovereign immunity from suit in tort no longer exists for the Board of Commissioners of the Port of Orleans, and all other such boards and agencies which had heretofore been accorded their immunity by jurisprudential doctrine only.

The court went on to uphold a defense of sovereign immunity in the Alford case, because the North-Central Area Vocational Technical School was an institution under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education, which was a special agency of the state granted immunity from tort actions by article 19, sec. 26 of the 1921 Constitution.[4]*444

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Bluebook (online)
323 So. 2d 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darville-v-associated-indemnity-corporation-la-1975.