Deshotel v. Travelers Indemnity Company

231 So. 2d 448
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 3, 1970
Docket2960
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 231 So. 2d 448 (Deshotel v. Travelers Indemnity Company) 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
Deshotel v. Travelers Indemnity Company, 231 So. 2d 448 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

231 So.2d 448 (1970)

Noah DESHOTEL, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
TRAVELERS INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 2960.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

January 15, 1970.
Dissenting Opinion January 20, 1970.
Rehearing Denied February 4, 1970.
Writ Granted April 3, 1970.

*449 Davidson, Meaux, Onebane & Donohoe, by V. Farley Sonnier, Lafayette, for defendant-appellant.

Daniel J. McGee, Mamou, and Andrew Vidrine, Church Point, for plaintiffappellee.

Before TATE, HOOD and MILLER, JJ.

MILLER, Judge.

Noah Deshotel seeks damages from his liability insurer, Travelers Indemnity Company, for injuries resulting from an automobile accident which occurred in Acadia Parish on November 22, 1965. Deshotel was riding in the front seat of his automobile which was being driven by his sixteen year old unemancipated son who resided with him. Deshotel contends that his son's negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident.

The trial court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff in the amount of the $5,000 policy limits, together with legal interest from date of judicial demand and all costs.

Travelers perfected this suspensive appeal and here contends, as it did at trial, that (1) plaintiff's minor son was not guilty of negligence which constituted a direct or proximate cause of the accident, but on the contrary was presented with a sudden emergency; (2) alternatively, plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence by virtue of his own independent negligence; and (3) plaintiff is contributorily negligent because under LSA-CC Art. 2318, the father's liability for the torts of his minor child attaches because he himself is guilty of fault in not having supervised his minor child sufficiently. Defendant contends that the father is not responding for the torts of another, but for his own act as he was himself at fault for not having supervised the minor with sufficient strictness.

Plaintiff and his son were the only two witnesses to testify, and their brief testimony was taken some three years after the accident. Plaintiff worked off shore and was returning to his home in Church Point. He rode with fellow employees to Eunice and was met about 2 a.m. in Eunice by his son who was spending the night at a relative's home. When Deshotel arrived, the relatives got up and visited over coffee for about an hour and a half. At about 4 a.m., Deshotel and his son departed for Church Point.

Deshotel's son was driving about 50 miles per hour on a straight and level blacktop highway which was "pretty rough" and was paved to a width of about 18 feet. There is no evidence concerning the width or condition of the shoulders of the highway. In the process of crossing the other car on the highway, Deshotel's son allowed his car to drift slightly to the *450 right and when the right wheels edged off the blacktop he lost control of the car, swerved across the road, and wrecked in the ditch on his left side of the road.

Ronald (the driver) noticed a car coming toward Eunice when "it was pretty far off." On direct examination he explained that the oncoming car had its lights on bright. "* * * I asked him to dim them and I tried to keep on my side of the road and I went off and cut right back toward the road (indicating) and I lost control and that is when I landed in this gully" (on the driver's left side of the road). Tr. 82, 83. On cross-examination, he testified that his lights were on dim and the oncoming car's lights were on bright; that he did not know how far he was from the oncoming car when the lights first blinded him. With some reluctance he estimated this distance to be "about two blocks, I guess."

"Q. When it first started blinding you what did you do?

A. Well, I tried to see the road and that's when—I don't know—that's when I went off the road and then on the other side.

Q. Okay. Then, you pulled off onto the right side of the road?

A. Yes, sir."

* * * * * *
"Q. About how far would you say you travelled from when you pulled off the pavements onto the shoulder until you ended up in the ditch—about how far was that distance?
A. Well, you see I went off the road and then I tried to bring it back right away and that's when I got in the gully."
* * * * * *

"Q. You never slowed down?

A. Yes, sir. I let up my foot off the accelerator when I hit the shoulder.
Q. Now, your father never told you to slow down or stop, did he?
A. No, sir."

On direct examination, Deshotel testified that he didn't know how the accident happened." * * * I saw this car coming and when I knew something the car was in the coulee." Tr. 93. But on cross-examination, he stated:

"Q. Did you notice whether its lights were on bright or dim.

A. Well, when I saw it, it was on bright and the young boy asked him for his dimmers and he gave him dim and he gave him bright. He went from bright to dim and right back to bright."

Deshotel estimated that they were only 50 steps away from the oncoming car when "he gave us brights" and it blinded Deshotel, too. Tr. 102. After that Deshotel's son "pulled to the right and well, he lost control." Tr. 102.

"Q. You never told your son to slow down or stop when you got blinded?
A. No, it was too quickly done."

Plaintiff contends that Deshotel had no opportunity to do anything in the way of direction to the driver which could have prevented this accident. Defendant argues that Deshotel was bound to tell his son to slow down because the oncoming lights were blinding them.

Travelers' first assignment of error that Deshotel's son was not negligent is based on two principles. First, Deshotel is bound by his testimony which is in effect a judicial confession that exonerates his son from negligence. Secondly, that under Deshotel's version of the accident, his son was confronted with a sudden emergency and is therefore free from negligence.

Travelers argues that under LSA-CC Art. 2291, if the testimony of plaintiff is consistent, even though it is contrary *451 to the physical facts or other testimony, it is a judicial confession against that particular plaintiff. Therefore, Travelers submits, although the physical facts and the other testimony may show that Ronald Deshotel may have been guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident, Deshotel's testimony and the provisions of the Civil Code article exonerate Ronald Deshotel and Travelers, as his insurer, from any liability. Franklin v. Zurich Insurance Company, 136 So.2d 735 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1962).

This holding was expressly rejected by the Supreme Court in Jackson v. Gulf Insurance Company, 250 La. 819, 199 So.2d 886 (1967), in the following language:

"A judicial confession under Article 2291 is a party's admission, or concession, in a judicial proceeding of an adverse factual element, waiving evidence as to the subject of the admission. A party's testimony is offered as evidence, not as a waiver of it. To be an effective agency of truth, the trier of fact must be allowed to weigh the disserving testimony of a party, as well as other evidence. When the truth is found elsewhere, the party's disserving testimony must yield in order to achieve the ends of justice." 199 So.2d 886, 891.

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Bluebook (online)
231 So. 2d 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deshotel-v-travelers-indemnity-company-lactapp-1970.