David v. Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.

242 So. 2d 1, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4742
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 9, 1970
DocketNo. 3250
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 242 So. 2d 1 (David v. Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.) 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
David v. Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Co., 242 So. 2d 1, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4742 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

HOOD, Judge.

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. David instituted this suit for damages for personal injuries sustained by Mrs. David in a motor vehicle collision. The defendants originally named in the suit are Louis A. Domingue, Lafayette Milling Co., Inc., Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Company, Mrs. Anna T. Chargois and Great American Insurance Company. A compromise settlement was entered into between plaintiffs and the first three named defendants while the suit was pending, and the suit was dismissed as to Domingue, Lafayette Milling Company and Houston Fire & Casualty Company.

The case then went to trial on the demands of plaintiffs against the remaining defendants, Mrs. Chargois and Great American Insurance Company. Following that trial judgment was rendered by the trial court rejecting plaintiffs’ demands against those defendants. Plaintiffs have appealed.

This suit was consolidated for trial with another suit which was instituted by Mr. and Mrs. Eric Joseph Reed against the same defendants, and which arose out of the same accident. We are deciding both of these companion cases on this date. See Reed, et ux. v. Great American Insurance Company, et al., 242 So.2d 6.

The accident which resulted in injuries to Mrs. David occurred about 5:00 p. m. on March 7, 1963, on U. S. Highway 167, approximately .8 of a mile south of Caren-ero, in Lafayette Parish. One of the automobiles involved in the collision was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Eric Joseph Reed, and it was being driven by Mrs. Reed when the accident occurred. The other automobile was owned by the Estate of Francis H. Pellerin, deceased, and was being driven by defendant, Mrs. Chargois. Great American Insurance Company was the liability insurer of the Pellerin car, and thus it was the insurer of Mrs. Chargois, the driver, at the time of this accident. See David v. Houston Fire and Casualty Insurance Co., 192 So.2d 583 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1966).

Mrs. David, one of the plaintiffs in this suit, was riding as a passenger on the front seat of the Reed vehicle, and she sustained injuries as the result of the collision. She contends that Mrs. Chargois was negligent, and that her negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.

The trial judge concluded that Mrs. Char-gois was free from negligence, and that plaintiffs are not entitled to recover from her or from her insurer. The principal issue presented on this appeal is whether the trial court erred in holding that Mrs. Chargois was not negligent.

The evidence shows that just before the vehicles collided, Mrs. Reed was driving her car north on U. S. Highway 167. As she approached the intersection of that [3]*3highway with the Gloria Switch Road, an automobile being driven west on Gloria Switch Road by Louis A. Domingue suddenly entered the intersection ahead of her and proceeded to turn to its left, or south, on Highway 167. After traveling several feet south on that highway, Domingue then turned his car to his right, or west, and drove it into a parking area in front of Landry’s Bar on the west side of the highway, and he stopped in that parking area directly in front of the bar.

The automobile which Domingue was driving was owned by his employer, Lafayette Milling Co., Inc., and it was insured by Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Company.

At the time Domingue entered the intersection, Mrs. Chargois was driving the Pel-lerin car south on Highway 167, approaching this crossing from the north. When Mrs. Chargois first saw Domingue in the intersection, she caused the car she was driving to veer to its right, or to the west, onto a shelled parking area in front of a lumberyard located northwest of the intersection. She drove some distance south on this shelled parking area, and then caused her car to turn back to her left onto the highway, re-entering the concrete portion of the highway at about the northwest corner of its intersection with the Gloria Switch Road. She traveled south across this intersection, and then began to veer her car to her left, proceeding in a southeasterly direction, across the center line of the highway and into the northbound traffic lane of Highway 167, to the point where her car collided with the Reed automobile.

The collision occurred in the northbound lane of Highway 167, about three feet from the east edge of the highway, at a point 87 feet south of its intersection with the Gloria Switch Road.

Mrs. Reed saw the Domingue car as it entered the intersection ahead of her, and she observed the Chargois car as it traveled a distance on the shelled parking area northwest of the crossing. She saw the Chargois vehicle as it veered back on the highway and crossed over into the northbound lane of traffic. Upon making these observations, Mrs. Reed immediately pulled her car to her right, partially on the east shoulder of the highway, and she brought it to a stop with the two right wheels of her car on the east shoulder of the road. The front of her car was 87 feet south of the crossing when it stopped, and the Reed car remained in that parked position until the collision occurred a few moments later.

The Domingue car was traveling at a speed of about IS miles per hour as it entered the intersection, and it continued to travel at that speed as it proceeded south on Highway 167 and then turned west into a parking area west of the highway. The accident occurred at a point directly east of, and across Highway 167 from, the place where Domingue parked his car. The investigating officer determined that the collision occurred 87 feet south of the intersection, so it is apparent that Domingue also was parked that distance south of the Gloria Switch Road. It is argued, and we agree, that Domingue drove a distance of at least 100 feet between the time he entered the intersection and the time he parked his car in front of Landry’s Bar. The evidence indicates that his car had traveled that entire distance and had been brought to a stop before the collision occurred.

Mrs. Chargois, by her own testimony, was traveling at a speed of 35 miles per hour as she approached this intersection. She testified that she did not see Domin-gue until he was already in the intersection, and about two car lengths ahead of her. She stated that she applied her brakes when she saw Domingue, and then does not remember anything that happened thereafter until the collision occurred. Her testimony, in part, was “Well, now I cannot swear to anything. I know I applied my brakes and when I noticed, the collision was there.” And, “I did not see anything. I don’t recall — the impact and that’s all.”

[4]*4Mrs. Reed was driving at a speed of about 35 or 40 miles per hour as she approached the intersection. She was about 200 or 225 feet from Domingue when he started to cross Highway 167. She began slowing up when she saw Mrs. Char-gois veer off to the west side of the highway, and she brought her car to a stop when she observed the Chargois automobile cross the center line and enter Mrs. Reed’s lane of traffic. As already noted, the Reed car was parked 87 feet south of the intersection, and partially on the east shoulder of the highway, when it was struck.

Some of the witnesses differed in their estimates as to how far Mrs. Chargois was from the intersection when she first saw Domingue and then veered off onto the west side of the highway. Mrs. Chargois’ own estimate of two car lengths obviously is incorrect, since the other evidence establishes that she traveled some distance on the shelled parking area and then back on the highway before she reached the crossing. Mrs. Reed and Mrs.

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242 So. 2d 1, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4742, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-v-houston-fire-casualty-insurance-co-lactapp-1970.