Dilworth v. Roberts

138 So. 2d 453, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1660
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 6, 1962
DocketNo. 5464
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 138 So. 2d 453 (Dilworth v. Roberts) 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
Dilworth v. Roberts, 138 So. 2d 453, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1660 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

The defendants have appealed and the plaintiff has answered the appeal seeking an increase in the award by the lower court to him as a result of a collision between the automobile of plaintiff and William J. Roberts, one of the defendants, at about 8:30 A. M. on a clear morning, on June 22, 1959 at the intersection of North Twenty-second Street and Main Street in the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The intersection in question is controlled by a semaphore light, green, yellow-caution, and red. The plaintiff approached the intersection travelling from the north to the south on North Twenty-second Street and stopped as the light was red. The light changed to green and he slowly moved forward, turning to the right on Main Street, and had reached a point eight feet south of the north parallel line of Main Street and one foot east of the west parallel line of North Twenty-second Street when the collision occurred between the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s automobiles. The point of impact was also twenty-one feet west of the center media of North Twenty-second Street. North Twenty-second street contains a strip of concrete dividing it in the center, either 12 or 24 inches in width, however, the width of North Twenty-second Street is given as forty-four feet. The plaintiff had almost completed his turn to the right on Main Street at the moment of impact as the main force was to the left front fender of his car, which struck the defendant’s car on its right side to the fore of its right front door. As the point of impact was only one foot east of the west parallel line of Main Street, the front of the defendant’s car had cleared the intersection and the front of the plaintiff’s car was within one foot of having cleared the intersection.

Although the defendant contends that he entered the intersection on a green light we are convinced that he entered on the red light. Defendant admits that the last time he looked at the light and it was green was as he cleared an intersection of the street to the east of North Twenty-second Street which he estimated to be a short block or approximately equal to a half block. The distance was not fixed as to this intersection by the defendant. How[455]*455ever, it is dear from the testimony that he never looked again at the light. There is no testimony as to how long the green had been on when he looked at it or saw it one-half block from the intersection of North Twenty-second Street. On the other hand, it is clear that the plaintiff came up to the intersection, stopped for a red light, waited until the light changed to green, then slowly pulled forward into the intersection, turned to his right and had gone eight feet south and within one foot of the east parallel line of Main Street when the accident occurred. We see no necessity in a detailed discussion of the testimony from the defendant’s standpoint as he was clearly negligent. The sole question in this case is whether the plaintiff was contributorily negligent and the burden was upon the defendant who plead such negligence. LSA-C.C.P. Articles 1005, 2164; Washington Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., La.App., 130 So.2d 699; Delta Fire & Cas. Co. v. Bird, La.App., 121 So.2d 375.

Plaintiff relies upon the same cases as to the law controlling the rights of a motorist entering an intersection on a green light as cited and discussed by this court in the recent case of LeBeau v. Baton Rouge Bus Co. Inc., 136 So.2d 740. In this case we stated:

“ * * * It is well-settled in our law by the jurisprudence that a motorist, including a bus operator, approaching and entering an intersection controlled by a traffic signal or a stop sign, is entitled to assume that the signals will be understood and obeyed, and is not required to anticipate that other motorists will violate the law. Gautreaux v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Company, La.App., 83 So.2d 667; White v. Travelers Insurance Company, etc., La.App., 94 So.2d 564; Duree v. State, La.App., 96 So.2d 854; Steele [, etc.] v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, 235 La. 564, 105 So.2d 222; Henderson v. Central Mutual Insurance Company, 238 La. 250, 115 So.2d 339; Youngblood v. Robison, 239 La. 338, 118 So.2d 431; Randall v. Baton Rouge Bus Company, 240 La. 527, 124 So.2d 535, 543; Andrea v. Hicks, La.App., 125 So.2d 251; Smith v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, La.App., 128 So.2d 235, 237; Noonan v. London Guarantee and Accident Company, La.App., 128 So.2d 918, 919; McCoy v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, La.App., 129 So.2d 66, 69; Warner v. Insurance Company of State of Pennsylvania, La.App., 129 So.2d 320, 322; Patterson v. Hardware Mutual Cas. Co., La.App., 131 So.2d 147, 149; Benoit v. Vincent, La.App., 132 So.2d 75, 76.
“In Youngblood v. Robison, supra, our Supreme Court settled the law which has been followed by subsequent decisions. It stated [239 La. 338, 118 So.2d 433]:
“ ‘There is nothing contained in the testimony of Dr. Guice which warrants a holding that he failed to exercise ordinary prudence in his approach to and negotiation of the crossing. He was driving at a reasonable rate of speed and maintaining a general observation of the intersection. Thus, he had his car under such control as to meet and respond to any hazard which might be expected under normal conditions and this was all that the law required of him. He was not obliged, as the Court of Appeal indicates, to turn his head in the direction of traffic approaching from his left or right, or from both left and right, to ascertain whether someone might violate the law by running the crossing on a red light. On the contrary, he had the right, under our jurisprudence, to assume that the law would be respected.
“ ‘In Koob v. Cooperative Cab Co., 213 La. 903, 35 So.2d 849, 851, where a stop sign was involved, the Court said:
[456]*456“ ‘ * * * The motorist on the right-of-way street, with knowledge of the location of such a stop sign, has a right to assume that any driver approaching the intersection from the less favored street will observe the law and bring his car to a complete stop before entering the intersection, and such motorist can indtjjge in this assumption until he sees, or should see, that the other car has not observed, or is not going to observe, the law.’ ”
This rule has been cited and followed on several occasions, notably in Ryan v. Allstate Insurance Company, 232 La. 831, 95 So.2d 328; Steele, etc. v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, 235 La. 564, 105 So.2d 222 and Henderson v. Central Mutual Insurance Company, 238 La. 250, 115 So.2d 339.
“The above cited jurisprudence governing cases where stop signs were involved applies, a fortiori, to intersections controlled by electric semaphore lights. When an intersection is controlled by a stop sign, the motorist on the favored street, as stated in the Koob case, is entitled to indulge in the assumption that any driver approaching from the less favored street will bring his car to a complete stop before entering the intersection. Nevertheless, some slight observation of the other car must be exercised because the motorist on the less favored street, who has stopped in obedience to the stop sign, is entitled to proceed whenever it appears to him, as a reasonably prudent man, that it is safe for him to negotiate the crossing.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 2d 453, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dilworth-v-roberts-lactapp-1962.