Edwards v. New Zion Apartments Ltd. Partnership

830 So. 2d 517, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 3222, 2002 WL 31398553
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 25, 2002
DocketNo. 36,081-CA
StatusPublished

This text of 830 So. 2d 517 (Edwards v. New Zion Apartments Ltd. Partnership) 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
Edwards v. New Zion Apartments Ltd. Partnership, 830 So. 2d 517, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 3222, 2002 WL 31398553 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

h GASKINS, J.

In this wrongful death action, the plaintiffs, Susie Edwards, Eula Mae Johnson, Alfred Williams and Albert Williams, Jr., appeal a judgment granting their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (“JNOV”) on the issue of damages and denying the motion with respect to the jury’s allocation of fault. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS

On July 28, 1997, the decedent, Willie Mae Williams, a 78-year-old mother of four adult children, died of hyperthermia or heat stroke. The decedent had been a tenant in an apartment complex located in Shreveport from 1982 until her death. New Zion Apartments Limited Partnership (“New Zion”) had purchased the apartment complex in April 1997. The apartments were old and were not air conditioned. However, decedent had installed a window-unit air conditioner in her apartment. A number of the apartments were unoccupied and in disrepair. New Zion began a substantial renovation project, including installation of new windows, floor coverings, kitchen and bath fixtures and central air conditioning in all of the apartments.

During the renovation, the tenants could not remain in their apartments. The manager gave them the choice of temporarily moving off-site or to another apartment in the complex. Although three of decedent’s four children lived in Shreveport, she decided to move into a nearby unoccupied apartment that had not been remodeled, but did have new windows. Decedent’s youngest son, Alfred Williams, moved her belongings to the temporary apartment, including the window-unit air |2conditioner, but he did not install the unit. Alfred later testified that he thought the air conditioner would not fit in the window because there was nothing to hold it in place.

In late July 1997, the temperatures were extremely hot in Shreveport. The weather was described as a “killer heat wave” by the Caddo Parish Coroner, Dr. George McCormick, who also reported that there were ten heat-related deaths that summer and that most were elderly individuals.

While she was staying in the temporary apartment, the decedent made a number of phone calls to 911 complaining about the high temperature in her apartment. Shreveport Police Officer Rita Caldwell, a community liaison officer, responded to decedent’s complaints. Officer Caldwell visited decedent in decedent’s apartment on two or three occasions, when decedent stated that she wanted to return to her original air-conditioned apartment. Caldwell noted that the windows and door were closed and that the temperature was “pretty hot” inside the apartment. Caldwell advised the decedent that the apartment [520]*520was too warm and that she needed to open the windows or door for ventilation, but decedent was unwilling to do so because of her fear of a break-in. During the weekend preceding her death, decedent left five or six messages on Caldwell’s office answering machine complaining about the temperature in her apartment.

On the morning of July 28, 1997, assistant manager Lakecia Webb telephoned decedent’s son, Alfred, after decedent did not answer her door. Alfred went to the apartment, looked in the window and saw his mother’s [3feet, but she was not moving. The apartment complex maintenance man forced open the door and decedent was found lying on a daybed. The two men carried decedent outside, placed her body on the ground and attempted CPR until Fire Department emergency personnel arrived. The decedent did not respond and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Caddo Parish Deputy Coroner Joseph Johnson arrived on the scene and observed the decedent’s covered body lying on the ground. Johnson entered the apartment and noticed that an air conditioner was on the floor, the windows were closed and he recorded the room temperature as 100 degrees with the door open. The decedent’s body was transported to the Coroner’s office, where Dr. McCormick reported that her core body temperature was 107 degrees approximately three hours after her death.

Subsequently, the plaintiffs, Susie Edwards, Eula Mae Johnson, Alfred Williams and Albert Williams, Jr., the adult children of decedent, filed a petition for damages against the defendants, New Zion, its insurer American Equity Insurance Company, John Turner, William Windham, Clear Horizons Limited Partnership and From tier Insurance Company. Turner, Wind-ham and Frontier Insurance Company were later dismissed from the action and Clear Horizons Limited Partnership was never served.

After a trial, the jury returned a verdict allocating 5% fault to New Zion in causing decedent’s death, 15% fault to the victim herself and 80% fault to the plaintiffs. The jury did not award any damages. Plaintiffs filed a motion for JNOV or new trial. The trial court denied the motion for new trial. However, the court granted the JNOV on the issue of damages, and 14awarded each plaintiff $50,000, but denied the motion with regard to the jury’s apportionment of fault. Plaintiffs appeal the judgment.

DISCUSSION

The plaintiffs contend the trial court erred in denying the motion for JNOV as to the apportionment of fault. Plaintiffs argue that based on the evidence, reasonable jurors could not have assessed plaintiffs with 80% fault and New Zion with 5% fault in the death of their mother.

Motions for JNOV are governed by La. C.C.P. art. 1811. A JNOV is warranted when the facts and inferences point so strongly in favor of one party that the court believes reasonable persons could not arrive at a contrary verdict, not merely when there is a preponderance of evidence for the mover. Anderson v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 583 So.2d 829 (La. 1991); May v. Jones, 28,106 (La.App.2d Cir.5/8/96), 675 So.2d 275, writ denied, 96-1466 (La.9/27/96), 679 So.2d 1354.

A motion for JNOV raises the question of whether the jury verdict is supported by any legitimate or substantial evidence. In making its determination, the trial court does not have the discretion to weigh the evidence, evaluate the credibility of witnesses or to substitute its judgment for that of the jury. Matthews v. Arkla Lubricants Inc., 32,121 (La.App.2d [521]*521Cir.8/18/99), 740 So.2d 787. Upon review, the appellate court must determine whether the trial court was clearly wrong in granting or denying a motion for JNOV. Holt v. Cannon Express Corp., 31,271 (La.App.2d Cir.12/11/98), 722 So.2d 433, writ denied, 1999-0104 (La.4/23/99), 742 So.2d 881.

| fiIn the present case, Susie Edwards, one of decedent’s daughters, testified that she last spoke with her mother early Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m., the day before she died. Edwards stated that decedent did not complain about the heat in the apartment at the time. Edwards testified that she had last visited her mother approximately one to two weeks previously in the morning and at that time the fan was on and the apartment did not feel hot. Edwards acknowledged that she never talked with her mother about the apartment temperature. Edwards testified that a window-unit air conditioner had been installed in decedent’s original apartment, but not in the temporary one because the windows had been replaced and there was not any window facing or other wood to support the unit. Edwards stated that although she was aware the decedent kept the windows closed, she did not tell her mother to open the windows because the screens were missing. Edwards acknowledged that she did not ask the apartment manager to install the air conditioner or window screens.

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Bluebook (online)
830 So. 2d 517, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 3222, 2002 WL 31398553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-new-zion-apartments-ltd-partnership-lactapp-2002.