Estaves v. Faucheux

111 So. 2d 802
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 27, 1959
Docket21196
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 111 So. 2d 802 (Estaves v. Faucheux) 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
Estaves v. Faucheux, 111 So. 2d 802 (La. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

111 So.2d 802 (1959)

Irving F. ESTAVES
v.
William J. FAUCHEUX, Jr., Delta Fire & Casualty Company and Joseph A. Villeret.

No. 21196.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Orleans.

April 27, 1959.
Rehearing Denied May 25, 1959.
Certiorari Denied June 25, 1959.

*803 Thomas J. Kliebert, New Orleans, and Clarence A. Frost, Reserve, for plaintiff-appellant.

Watson, Blanche, Wilson, Posner & Thibaut, Baton Rouge, David W. Robinson, Baton Rouge, of counsel, for Delta Fire & Casualty Co., defendants and appellees.

JANVIER, Judge.

This suit results from an automobile accident in which a young girl, Helena Estaves, 17 years old at the time, sustained physical injuries. Her father, Irving F. Estaves, brought this suit on her behalf for her injuries and suffering and on his own behalf for medical and other expenses made necessary by those injuries.

The defendants named in the petition were William J. Faucheux, Jr., the driver of the automobile and the employer of the young girl, Delta Fire & Casualty Company, the liability insurer of Faucheux, and Joseph A. Villeret, the driver of the other car which was involved in the accident.

As already stated, Faucheux was the employer of the young girl, and, in the alternative that it should appear that the business of Faucheux was hazardous and that the accident occurred in the course of and arose out of her employment in that business, plaintiff prayed for an award under our compensation laws, Act 20 of 1914, as amended by the Act 179 of 1948, LSA-R.S. 23:1041.

All defendants answered, Villeret, the driver of the other car, denying that he had been at fault, and Faucheux and his insurer, Delta Fire & Casualty Company, denying fault on the part of Faucheux but making as their principal defense to the suit in tort the contention that the girl was an employee of Faucheux, that she was in the automobile as a result of the necessities of the hazardous business of Faucheux, and that the accident had arisen out of and had occurred during the course of her employment in that business, and that consequently since, if there was liability in compensation, there could be no liability in tort, the suit insofar as it was based on tort should be dismissed.

The two defendants, William J. Faucheux, Jr., and Delta Fire & Casualty Company averred that not only do our compensation laws, where applicable, exclude recovery in tort, but that the policy of insurance which had been issued by Delta Fire & Casualty Company to Faucheux expressly excluded from its coverage any liability for tort for injury sustained by an employee under circumstances which might create liability in compensation.

Before the matter was tried in the District Court, it was stipulated that the suit should be dismissed insofar as it was alternatively *804 a claim for compensation. It may be noted here that on the same day on which this suit was filed, the plaintiff, Irving F. Estaves, on his own behalf and on behalf of his minor daughter, filed another suit in the same Court (Twenty-third Judicial District Court for the Parish of St. James) in which he alleged that his daughter, at the time of the accident, was an employee of Faucheux, and that under the circumstances should be permitted recovery in compensation. That suit is still pending on the docket of the District Court.

In the matter which is now before us there was judgment dismissing the suit as against all three defendants. The reasons given by the District Judge for dismissing it as against Faucheux and Delta Fire & Casualty Company was that, in his opinion, the young girl was an employee of the defendant, William J. Faucheux, Jr., and that the transportation was an incident of her employment, "was actually a part of it," and that the accident arose out of and occurred in the course of that hazardous employment, and that consequently there could be no recovery against those defendants in tort. The suit as against Villeret was dismissed for the reason that the District Judge felt that the accident had been caused solely by negligence of Faucheux and that Villeret had been in no way at fault.

Plaintiff appealed as against all three defendants, but when the matter was argued before us counsel for plaintiff stated that they did not desire to "press" the appeal against Villeret since he was "judgment proof."

Consequently, the only question which confronts us is whether or not our compensation statute, LSA-R.S. 23:1102 et seq., is applicable under the facts presented here, and if so, whether the applicability of our compensation laws precludes recovery in tort.

There is practically no dispute over the facts. Helena Estaves, at the time (April 18, 1955) was 17 years of age. She was employed in the restaurant of Faucheux which was in a small commercial settlement know as Lutcher on the Airline Highway which runs between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In this restaurant alcoholic liquors were sold for consumption on the premises.

Faucheux also owns or is interested in an automobile or garage establishment in that settlement near to his restaurant. In this settlement there are very few residences. It is a few miles from Gramercy, Louisiana, where many persons reside, and it is conclusively shown that such help as was required by Faucheux in the operation of his restaurant and the servicing of his customers could not be obtained in Lutcher and could be found only in Gramercy and that therefore it was necessary that such employees as were required be transported back and forth between their homes in Gramercy and the restaurant in Lutcher.

It is shown, and in fact not denied, that because of this situation Faucheux regularly arranged for the transportation of these employees, sometimes using cars of his garage or automobile establishment, sometimes using his personal family car, and sometimes employing taxicabs. It is conceded that there was nothing about the operation of the restaurant itself which would have justified the legal conclusion that in operating it Faucheux was within the contemplation of the Workmen's Compensation Law in that the restaurant business was hazardous. Therefore, the sole contention of Faucheux and of his insurer is that, since it was necessary in the operation of his restaurant that he transport his employees to and from their homes by automobile the said transportation became an integral part of his restaurant business, with the result that accidental injuries sustained by such employees during the course of such transportation should be considered as having occurred in the course of and having arisen out of that employment, and that because of that transportation the business of Faucheux insofar as those employees were concerned was hazardous.

*805 Before considering the question of whether the necessary furnishing by the employer of motor transportation to employees between their residences and the place of employment converts a business which is not otherwise hazardous into one which is within the contemplation of our compensation laws, Act 20 of 1914, as amended, LSA-R.S. 23:1031, we must first investigate three contentions of plaintiff, any one of which, if sustained, would prevent the application of compensation laws even if the business of the employer, because of the use of motor vehicles, could be considered as hazardous.

The first of those contentions is that our compensation statute, even as now amended, does not afford compensation coverage to any minor under the age of eighteen.

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Bluebook (online)
111 So. 2d 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estaves-v-faucheux-lactapp-1959.