Emmco Insurance v. Globe Indemnity Co.

105 So. 2d 748, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 656
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 20, 1958
DocketNo. 21052
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 105 So. 2d 748 (Emmco Insurance v. Globe Indemnity Co.) 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
Emmco Insurance v. Globe Indemnity Co., 105 So. 2d 748, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 656 (La. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

McBRIDE, Judge.

On May 28, 1954, there was a collision between two automobiles at the intersection of Anson and Madison Streets in Jefferson Parish, and as an aftermath thereof Otto W. Strong, the owner of one of the automobiles, and his partial sub-rogee, Emmco Insurance Company, brought a direct action against the Globe Indemnity Company, the liability insurer of Sam Pitti, the owner of the other automobile involved in the crash, seeking to recover the amount of damages sustained by the Strong vehicle. After the Globe Indemnity Company had joined issue by filing its answer, Sam Pitti injected himself into the proceedings by filing what he terms a petition of intervention in which he claims of Otto W. Strong the sum of $2,000 for alleged personal injuries and for the damage sustained by his automobile as a result of the aforementioned collision. Strong excepted to the intervention on the ground that it was improperly and improvidently brought and that such proceeding is unknown to our law. This exception was overruled, and then with full reservation in and to all of his rights thereunder, Strong answered Pitti’s petition of intervention.

The matter proceeded to a trial on the merits which culminated in judgment being rendered in favor of the Emmco Insurance Company and Otto W. Strong, plaintiffs, and against Globe Indemnity Company, defendant, for the sum of $427.-61; Pitti’s intervention was dismissed at his cost.

Pitti then timely made application for a rehearing which was granted by the trial [750]*750judge, and upon the rehearing of the case, judgment was rendered dismissing the suit of Strong and Emmco Insurance Company against Globe Indemnity Company, and Pitti was awarded damages in the sum of $352.65 against Strong on the intervention. Strong has taken this appeal.

The only matter to be reviewed by this court is the judgment which Pitti recovered against Strong on the intervention as appellant has withdrawn his appeal as to that part of the judgment which dismisses his claim against Globe Indemnity Company.

The appellant has reurged his exception to the intervention before us. He advances the argument that such an intervention as Pitti seeks to prosecute would cause chaos and indecision in the trial of a lawsuit in that Pitti, although not a party to the suit, is endeavoring to place himself in the position of a reconvenor by filing his so-called intervention.

On the other hand, Pitti’s counsel makes the argument that the provisions of C.P. art. 390 are broad enough to permit one having an independent and separate claim for damages arising out of the same transaction to intervene in a lawsuit between other persons and to prosecute his claim even as against the plaintiff.

Our opinion is that the order of court permitting Pitti to file the intervention was improvidently issued, and we agree with Strong’s counsel that such an intervention is unknown to and wholly unauthorized by the rules of pleading and practice prevailing in this state.

Code of Practice art. 101 states:

“Besides the plaintiff and defendant, there are often other parties to the suit, such as warrantors, third persons intervening, and parties opposing; but such parties, whether plaintiffs or defendants, as the case may be, are only so incidentally and subsidi-arily.”

Intervention is defined by C.P. art. 389 thusly :

“An intervention or interpleader is a demand by which a third person requires to be permitted to become a party in a suit between other persons; by joining the plaintiff in claiming the same thing, or something connected with it, or by uniting with the defendant in resisting the claims of the plaintiff, or, where his interest requires it, by opposing both.”

The next article, C.P. art. 390, contains these provisions:

“In order to be entitled to intervene, it is enough to have' an interest in the success of either of the parties to the suit, or an interest opposed to both.”

The thing involved in the main demand is a claim asserted by Emmco Insurance Company and Strong against Globe Indemnity Company for Strong’s damages, and it is a certainty that Pitti has no interest in the amount so claimed by the plaintiffs or in the success of either party to the litigation. By entering the suit he did not and could not have joined the plaintiffs in claiming the same thing or united with defendant in resisting the claim. Nor could he or did he oppose both parties to the suit.

The separate and unrelated claim for damages set forth in the petition of intervention was not something connected with the main demand within the contemplation of the article notwithstanding it arose out of the same transaction.

The right of one to intervene in a pending lawsuit is regulated by the provisions of the Code of Practice, and to exercise the right of intervention the third person must enter the suit for one of the purposes contemplated by the articles.

We agree that C.P. art. 390 should be given somewhat of a liberal interpretation looking to the avoidance of a multiplicity of lawsuits, but we refuse to be[751]*751lieve that the article should be so loosely-construed as to sanction the present intervention.

To give such a liberal interpretation to C.P. art. 390 as Pitti contends for would have the effect of granting without limit the right of intervention to any person who might have been damaged as the result of the automobile accident; thus there could be injected into the original suit claims and issues rjot related to the thing claimed by the plaintiffs in the main demand. For instance, if a number of bystanders or passengers in the automobiles had suffered injury and damage as a result of the collision, each one of these persons could enter the lawsuit and assert their claims and counterclaims, the ultimate result of which would be to cause utter confusion and a frustration of orderly process of the original suit.

Article 390 of the Code of Practice was discussed by our brethren of the Second Circuit in the case of State Board of Medical Examiners v. McHenery, La.App., 69 So.2d 592, 594. In that case the Board of Medical Examiners sought to enjoin and prohibit the defendant, a chiropractor, from the practice of medicine in the State of Louisiana until such time as he should have obtained a certificate or permit required by law. Some two hundred individuals sought to intervene and unite with the defendant in the case, but the interventions were disallowed. The court said:

“A literal and liberal interpretation of the above-quoted article (390) would result in an almost unlimited and unrestricted right of intervention and would lead to cumbersome, impractical and absurd results. For example, in proceedings by the proper authority of the State to revoke a liquor license every liquor dealer of the State might qualify as having a general interest sustaining his right to intervene; in an action of disbarment every lawyer might be deemed to have such a general interest as would sustain a right of intervention. The examples are infinite. We think no such result was intended and we believe that the intent and purpose of the nature and character of interest which is necessary is more accurately delineated by the provisions of Article 391 of the Code of Practice * *

We think the quoted language particularly apropos in the instant case.

Counsel for the intervenor cites State ex rel. Pope v.

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Related

Wright v. Mark C. Smith & Sons Partnership
264 So. 2d 304 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1972)
Emmco Insurance Co. v. Globe Indemnity Co.
119 So. 2d 516 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
Emmco Insurance Co. v. Globe Indemnity Co.
111 So. 2d 115 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
105 So. 2d 748, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emmco-insurance-v-globe-indemnity-co-lactapp-1958.