Dofflemyer v. Gilley

378 So. 2d 440, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 2945
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 10, 1979
DocketNo. 7087
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 378 So. 2d 440 (Dofflemyer v. Gilley) 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
Dofflemyer v. Gilley, 378 So. 2d 440, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 2945 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

CULPEPPER, Judge.

This is a suit for damages for personal injuries. The plaintiff, Dofflemyer, was a pedestrian. He was struck by an automobile driven by the defendant, Gary D. Gil-ley. Also named as defendants are (1) Frederick Moore, Sr., father of Frederick R. Moore, Jr., who owned the car and was a passenger in it at the time of the accident, (2) Government Employees Insurance Company, the homeowner’s insurer of Frederick Moore, Sr., and (3) American Indemnity Company, liability insurer of the vehicle. A jury found the plaintiff assumed the risk of [441]*441the accident. From a judgment dismissing his suit, plaintiff appeals.

The issues on appeal are: (1) Did the trial judge err in charging the jury that plaintiff’s recovery could be barred under the law of assumption of the risk? (2) Was the jury manifestly erroneous in finding as a fact that plaintiff assumed the risk?

The facts are that at about 4:00 P.M. on June 26, 1976 a group of approximately 30 persons, ranging in age from 15 years to the mid-thirties, were gathered in one of the parking areas at the Civic Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were on the south side of Bord dulac Drive, a four-lane road, with two lanes for east bound traffic and two lanes for west bound. This thoroughfare is located south of the Civic Center building. The crowd was in a parking area located south of the road. The plaintiff, who was about 44 years of age at the time of the accident, was in the crowd with several of his young friends. He testified he had gone there to deliver a gift to Michelle Holt, about 16 years of age, who had been out of town.

After arriving at the Civic Center, plaintiff had asked Phyllis and Kathy Benoit, two of his young friends, to drive and pick up something for them to eat. When the girls returned, the vehicle driven by Gilley pulled in behind them, and the girls said that they had been harassed by Gilley and young Moore. Plaintiff approached the vehicle and told Gilley and Moore to leave the girls alone. Gilley and plaintiff recognized each other from having served time in the parish jail together. After a brief exchange of words between plaintiff and Gil-ley and Moore, the car driven by Gilley “peeled” out. Plaintiff says he had to step back to avoid being hit.

Gilley then proceeded to drive the car back and forth up and down the road near the crowd five or six times, attracting everyone’s attention by driving at an excessive speed and in a reckless manner. On one of these passes, plaintiff yelled for Gilley to stop. Gilley did stop near the curb, but he took off again when plaintiff walked toward the car. Plaintiff testified that on another of the passes, Gilley almost hit several children when the car “fishtailed” as it came out of a curve. The crowd became upset, and there is testimony that a tire tool was thrown at the Gilley vehicle on one of the passes.

Plaintiff testified he decided to stop Gil-ley on the next pass. There is a conflict between the testimony of plaintiff and his witnesses and the testimony of Gilley as to exactly how the accident occurred. According to plaintiff and his witnesses, he left the parking area on the south side of the road and walked either into the inside west bound lane or the inside east bound lane, where he stopped and started waving his hands at the Gilley vehicle, which was approaching from the west in the outside east bound lane. Plaintiff says he saw Gilley approaching 400 or 500 yards away, and he was going fast. He testified that as Gilley came nearer, Gilley left the outside east bound lane and drove directly toward the place where plaintiff was standing. It is plaintiff’s contention that he attempted to jump to his right (toward the north), but that the left front of the vehicle struck him, flipping his body over the car.

Gilley testified that immediately before the accident he was driving in the inside east bound lane and he saw plaintiff also in the inside east bound lane, very near the double yellow line, waving his hands for Gilley to stop. He says he continued, thinking plaintiff would jump out of the way, but that, instead of jumping to the side, plaintiff jumped up onto the hood of the car. Gilley expressly denied swerving across the yellow line to hit plaintiff and he denied he intended to run into plaintiff.

Immediately after the impact, Gilley continued on and voluntarily turned himself in to the police, who charged him with hit and run driving. He said he was afraid to stop at the scene of the accident, for fear of the angry crowd.

In a special verdict, the jury answered interrogatories numbered as follows:

1. Was Gary D. Gilley guilty of negligence which was a legal cause of the • accident?
[442]*442Answer: Yes.
2. Was this accident an intentional act on the part of Gary D. Gilley?
Answer: Yes.
4. Was Jennings Jack Dufflemyer guilty of negligence which was a legal cause of the accident?
Answer: No.
5. Did Jennings Jack Dufflemyer assume the risk of injury by voluntarily placing himself in the known position of danger?
Answer: Yes.

We will first consider plaintiff’s argument that the trial judge erred in charging the jury that recovery could be denied the plaintiff on the basis of assumption of the risk. In support of this, argument, plaintiff relies on Baumgartner v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 356 So.2d 400 (La.1978) and Brantley v. Brown, 277 So.2d 141 (La.1973).

In Baumgartner, a pedestrian, while crossing the street in a cross-walk, was hit by defendant’s automobile. The Court of Appeal held the pedestrian had the last clear chance to avoid the accident by seeing the approaching automobile and not walking into its path. With one justice dissenting and two concurring, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the last clear chance doctrine is not applicable to pedestrians under these facts, and, therefore, that the pedestrian was not contributorily negligent.

Baumgartner is distinguished from the present case. In that decision, the court does not discuss assumption of the risk or hold that doctrine is not applicable to pedestrians struck by vehicles. Furthermore, Baumgartner is distinguishable on the facts, since there the pedestrian was in a cross-walk and was unaware of the approaching automobile. In the present ease, plaintiff was not in a cross-walk and he saw the vehicle approaching at least 400 yards away.

In Brantley, a 12-year-old boy was riding on the fender of an automobile whose driver was negligent in not yielding the right of way to another vehicle at an intersection. The court held that, notwithstanding the violation of the state statute against out riders, the boy did not assume the risk of negligent driving by either motorist. The rationale of the decision appears to be that an out rider assumes only such risks as are ordinarily incident to his position. Clearly, the case does not support the present plaintiff’s contention that assumption of the risk cannot bar a pedestrian’s recovery.

We find no error by the district judge in charging the jury on the law of assumption of the risk.

The next issue is whether the jury was clearly wrong in its factual finding that plaintiff assumed the risk. In Prestenbach v. Sentry Insurance Company,

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Related

Van Der Ploeg Schroen v. Daison
608 So. 2d 1080 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1992)
Dofflemyer v. Gilley
395 So. 2d 403 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
Dofflemyer v. Gilley
379 So. 2d 1102 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1980)

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Bluebook (online)
378 So. 2d 440, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 2945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dofflemyer-v-gilley-lactapp-1979.