Decker v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp.

247 So. 2d 232, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6257
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 1971
DocketNo. 4393
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 247 So. 2d 232 (Decker v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp.) 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
Decker v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp., 247 So. 2d 232, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6257 (La. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

REGAN, Judge.

The plaintiff, Louis G. Decker, filed this suit against the defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Lionel Bachemin and Employers Liability Assurance Corporation, Ltd., in conformity with the uninsured motorist provision of his own policy, endeavoring to recover the sum of $18,025.00, representing damages which he asserts were incurred as the result of a collision between his truck and an automobile driven by Mrs. Bachemin.

The defendant insurance company answered and denied that Mrs. Bachemin, the uninsured motorist, was guilty of any negligence in the collision. It further asserted that the sole cause of the accident was the negligence of the plaintiff in failing to see Mrs. Bachemin's vehicle and in omitting to yield the right of way to her automobile which was being driven in a through street.

The defendant insurer alternatively alleged these same omissions of the plaintiff in order to establish his contributory negligence. The other defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Bachemin, filed no answer in this suit and were not represented by counsel.

After a trial on the merits, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $1,161.00. From that [234]*234judgment the defendant, Employers Liability Assurance Corporation, Ltd., has prosecuted this appeal. The plaintiff has answered the appeal requesting that we increase the amount of the judgment to $4,000.00.

The record discloses that this suit emanates from a collision which occurred on December 17, 1967 in the intersection of St. Roch Avenue and North Miro Street in New Orleans, between a truck operated by the plaintiff and an automobile owned by Lionel Bachemin and driven by his wife who was engaged in a community mission.

St. Roch Avenue has a wide neutral ground with ascending and descending lanes of traffic on each side, one for north bound traffic and the other for traffic moving south, or in the direction of the Mississippi River. Each of its roadways is approximately 30 feet in width. North Miro Street is a one way street for traffic moving in a westerly direction, or toward Canal Street, and it is also approximately 30 feet wide. In the intersection of the two streets there is located a stop sign which controls north bound traffic in St. Roch, and a slow sign for vehicles in North Miro Street.

The plaintiff testified that he was proceeding in St. Roch Avenue adjacent to the neutral ground lane in a northerly direction and stopped in obedience to the stop sign favoring Miro Street. Mrs. Bachemin was proceeding in North Miro and was faced with the slow sign. The vehicles collided near the center of the intersection formed by North Miro Street and the lake bound roadway of St. Roch Avenue.

Mrs. Bachemin testified that she was driving on the right side of Miro Street towards St. Roch at a speed of approximately 30 miles per hour. Since she knew from personal experience that she was confronted with a slow sign and that traffic in St. Roch was faced with a stop sign, she insists that she slowed her vehicle from 30 miles to approximately 25 miles per hour for the purpose of safely traversing the intersection. She related that she was aware of the fact that the view to her left was obscured by a business establishment which extends to the edge of the sidewalk at that point, but acknowledges that she exercised no other precautions. The first time she noticed the plaintiff’s vehicle was moments before the collision occurred.

The plaintiff asserted that he stopped his truck in obedience to the stop sign in St. Roch Avenue in the lane nearest the neutral ground. He looked to his right, saw nothing approaching, and proceeded to traverse the intersection at which time his truck was struck by the Bachemin vehicle between the truck’s center and its rear. The force of the collision was sufficient to do substantial damage to the truck and its contents, and to throw the plaintiff physically from his truck to the opposite side of the neutral ground near the south bound roadway of St. Roch.

Clarence J. Villio, who resided near the intersection, testified that he observed the impact when it occurred, and substantiated the plaintiff’s testimony to the effect that he stopped at the intersection, looked to his right and then proceeded across. He said that when the plaintiff’s automobile was well into the intersection Mrs. Bachemin’s vehicle struck the rear portion thereof although he could not estimate the speed of her car.

The evidence convinces us that Mrs. Bachemin was at fault in the operation of her vehicle. We are fully aware of the jurisprudence to the effect that a motorist driving in a right of way street, in possession of knowledge that the intersecting street is controlled by a stop sign, has a right to assume that any driver approaching that intersection from the less favored street will observe the law and bring his vehicle to a complete stop before entering the intersection. Such motorist may indulge in this assumption until he sees, or [235]*235should see that the other vehicle has or will not observe his obligation to stop.1

However, in discussing the very intersection which is involved in this litigation, the Louisiana Supreme Court has asserted2 that the foregoing rationale is not applicable to a motorist proceeding on a favored street which is regulated by a slow sign, the organ for the court theorized that such a street is not “favored” to the same extent that it would be in the absence of the slow sign; therefore, the driver’s right to assume that a motorist would observe the stop sign in the intersection was greatly decreased by comparison with the right of the driver in cases not confronted with a slow sign to indulge in the assumption that the vehicle on the less favored street would come to a stop. The court further reasoned that a slow sign on the favored street warns the motorist that the locus or intersection is hazardous and his duty to exercise vigilance and prudence is therefore increased, and that it is inescapable that his right to rely on a motorist to obey a stop sign at the intersection is decreased. Such a motorist must do more than reduce his speed; he must also enter the intersection with caution and vigilance so as to apprise himself that he may proceed safely across. In the litigation before us, Mrs. Bachemin decreased the speed of her vehicle in the center of the block from 30 miles an hour to about 25 miles an hour. She completely neglected to apply her brakes at the intersection, and by her own admission the plaintiffs vehicle did not enter her vision until she actually struck it. In view of these facts the inevitable conclusion is that Mrs. Bache-min was guilty of negligence in the operation of her vehicle.

The only significant question posed for our consideration is whether the plaintiff has exculpated himself from any contributory negligence by virtue of his having preempted the. intersection.

The provisions of R.S. 32:123 reveal that it is the-duty of a driver confronted with a stop sign not only to bring his vehicle to a stop but also to evaluate the traffic conditions in the intersecting street and to yield the right of way to any vehicle approaching closely enough on the favored highway as to constitute a safety hazard.3 To merely stop in obedience to a traffic sign and then proceed into the path of oncoming vehicles constitutes negligence. To look and not to see is equivalent to not looking at all.4

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
247 So. 2d 232, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/decker-v-employers-liability-assurance-corp-lactapp-1971.