Downs v. RTS Sec., Inc.

670 So. 2d 434
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 31, 1996
Docket95-835
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 670 So. 2d 434 (Downs v. RTS Sec., Inc.) 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
Downs v. RTS Sec., Inc., 670 So. 2d 434 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

670 So.2d 434 (1996)

John DOWNS, Jr., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
R.T.S. SECURITY, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-835.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

January 31, 1996.
Rehearing Denied April 24, 1996.

*436 Karl W. Bengtson, T. Robert Shelton, Lafayette, for John Downs Jr. and Norma L. Downs.

R.T.S. Security, et al., for R.T.S. Security, et al.

Jennifer M. Kleinpeter, Lafayette, for Olin Corporation.

John A. Keller, Lafayette, for Ortego Oil & Supply Company, Inc.

Before KNOLL, THIBODEAUX and AMY, Judges.

AMY, Judge.

This appeal arises from the trial court's granting of a peremptory exception of no cause of action in favor of the defendant-appellee, Olin Corporation. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

John Downs, Jr. was employed by Country Mart, Inc., the lessee and operator of a convenience store known as the Country Mart, Jr. in Carencro, Louisiana. On December 26, 1993, while Downs was working at the Country Mart, Jr., an unknown armed robber entered the store and shot Downs three times. The first bullet entered the front of his right shoulder and exited through the back of his arm. The second and third bullets entered at his right flank and exited near his navel, leaving a grapefruit size wound.

On December 27, 1994, Downs and his wife, Norma, filed suit against Ortego Oil & Supply Company, Inc., the owner and lessor of the store, R.T.S. Security, Inc., who provided the store with security services, A. Graham and Joan Turland, the legal successors of R.T.S. Security, Inc., and Olin Corporation, the manufacturer of the "Black Talon" bullets that Downs was shot with. Specifically, Downs alleged that his injuries were worsened and aggravated by the defective design of the "Black Talon" ammunition. Downs also alleged that the ammunition, upon impact with the human body, opened up to extend "several pointed and jagged metalic `petals' which spin and slice through the soft tissues of the body in a path of destruction much wider, destructive and potentially deadly than normal handgun ammunition of standard design."

On February 15, 1995, Olin Corporation filed a peremptory exception of no cause of action. After hearing arguments, the trial court, in granting the exception of no cause of action, reasoned that under Addison v. Williams, 546 So.2d 220 (La.App. 2 Cir.), writ denied, 550 So.2d 634 (La.1989), manufacturers of weapons and ammunition used in it are not liable for the injuries resulting from criminal misuse. On March 20, 1995, the trial court rendered judgment encompassing its oral reasons for judgment. However, on March 23, 1995, the trial court rendered an amended judgment which added: "dismissing plaintiffs' case against OLIN CORPORATION with prejudice at plaintiffs' cost."

The Downs appeal from that judgment and assert that the trial court erred in: (1) failing to recognize a cause of action under the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA); (2) failing to leave for jury determination the questions of whether Olin's design was unreasonably dangerous as alleged in the petition; (3) failing to grant the Downs a period of time to amend their petition to specifically *437 set forth additional facts that would have been necessary to state a cause of action; and (4) entering an amended judgment without notice.

PEREMPTORY EXCEPTION OF NO CAUSE OF ACTION

The peremptory exception of no cause of action tests the sufficiency in law of the plaintiff's petition to allow recovery by anyone against the defendant and is triable solely on the face of the petition and any annexed documents or exhibits, with all well-pleaded allegations of fact accepted as true. Young v. Central Louisiana Legal Services, 432 So.2d 1072 (La.App. 3 Cir.1983). The general rule is that where a petition states a cause of action as to any grounds or portion of a demand, the exception of no cause of action should be denied. Ward v. Tenneco Oil Company, 564 So.2d 814 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1990). In reviewing a trial court's ruling sustaining an exception of no cause of action, the court of appeal should subject the case to a de novo review because the exception raises a question of law and the lower court's decision is based only on the sufficiency of the petition. City of New Orleans v. Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District, 93-0690 (La. 7/5/94), 640 So.2d 237.

A claimant may recover under the LPLA by proving that the damage arose from a reasonably anticipated use of the product and that the product was unreasonably dangerous in at least one of the following ways, namely: (1) in construction or composition; (2) in design; (3) for inadequate warning; or (4) for the product's failure to conform to an express warranty of the manufacturer. La.R.S. 9:2800.54; State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. v. Wrap-On Company, Inc., 626 So.2d 874 (La.App. 3 Cir.1993), writ denied, 93-2988 (La. 1/28/94), 630 So.2d 800. La.R.S. 9:2800.56 provides that a product is unreasonably dangerous in design, if at the time the product left its manufacturer's control:

(1) There existed an alternative design for the product that was capable of preventing the claimant's damage; and

(2) The likelihood that the product's design would cause the claimant's damage and the gravity of damage outweighed the burden on the manufacturer of adopting such alternative design and the adverse effect, if any, of such alternative design on the utility of the product.

The Downs argue in brief that the trial court erred in granting Olin's exception of no cause of action because they have stated a cause of action under the LPLA. Specifically, the Downs argue that they asserted in their petition that the "Black Talon" ammunition was defective in design under the LPLA. Their petition states, in pertinent part, that:

The severity of the injuries suffered by JOHN DOWNS in this shooting were worsened and aggravated by the defective condition of the "black talon" ammunition, and by WINCHESTER'S negligence and other legal fault, through its officers and agents, and through its employees pursuant to the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, in the following non-exclusive particulars:
A. Designing and marketing to the general public, a form of ammunition which is specifically designed to increase the likelihood of death or severe disabling and disfiguring injury to a human being;
B. Designing and marketing to the general public, handgun ammunition which is designed to enhance injury to the human body in a manner which violates the standards of human decency set by the United States' international treaties for soldiers to conduct all out war between nations;
C. Designing and marketing to the general public, handgun ammunition for which there are, and have for many years been, many safer alternative designs;
D. Designing and marketing to the general public, a product which is inherently dangerous and incapable of safe use, its injury enhancement/death-encouraging features making this product ultrahazardous;
E. Designing and marketing to the general public, a product which is hazardous *438 in the extreme, without any regard for the life, health or safety of the persons against whom the product may be used, and with total, reckless abandonment of the duty to act in all matters with reasonable care; and
F.

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Bluebook (online)
670 So. 2d 434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/downs-v-rts-sec-inc-lactapp-1996.