Fontana v. Foster

547 So. 2d 1328, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1262, 1989 WL 68671
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 16, 1989
DocketNo. 89-CA-133
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 547 So. 2d 1328 (Fontana v. Foster) 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
Fontana v. Foster, 547 So. 2d 1328, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1262, 1989 WL 68671 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

GRISBAUM, Judge.

This appeal relates to a vehicular rental liability claim. Budget Rent A Car (lessor), having been denied recovery by the trial court, seeks $5000 in property damage from Roberta Senner (rental agreement lessee), Senner’s insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (Liberty Mutual), Karen Johnson (the additional driver listed in the agreement), and Sidney Foster (the driver in fact at the time of the vehicular collision). We annul and reverse.

[1329]*1329ISSUES

We are called upon to resolve three issues:

(1) Whether the lessee in the rental agreement and/or the designated driver are liable, under contract, for damages to the leased vehicle;

(2) Whether the driver in fact is liable in tort for damages to the vehicle; and

(3) Whether the insurer of the lessee of the rental agreement is likewise liable to the lessor as the lessee’s insurer.

FACTS

Plaintiff, David Fontana, filed suit on July 20, 1987, alleging he was owed $5000 by defendants as a result of property damages arising out of an accident in which his school bus was rear-ended by an automobile owned by Sears Budget Rent A Car of New Orleans, Inc. (Budget), rented to Roberta Senner with Karen Johnson listed as an additional driver and driven by Sidney Foster. Also made defendants were various insurers. On September 17, 1987, Lib-, erty Mutual, insurer of Roberta Senner, answered suit, denying most of plaintiffs allegations, and instituted third-party demands against Sidney Foster and Budget. Budget answered the demand as to it on October 1, 1987 and itself made third-party claims against Senner, Johnson, Liberty Mutual, and Foster. Budget answered plaintiff’s petition on October 21, 1987. Senner and Liberty Mutual answered Budget’s demand on November 17, 1987.

On May 26,1988, Budget moved for summary judgment as to plaintiff and third-party plaintiff. A decision was referred to the merits. By consent judgment signed June 13, 1988, Liberty Mutual dismissed its claims against Budget. On October 31, 1988, after trial June 21, the following judgment was signed by the trial court:

This matter came for hearing at trial on June 21, 1988.
PRESENT: DEBRA M. KESLER, Attorney for Plaintiff, David Fontana;
KEVIN T. PHAYER, Attorney for Defendants, Karen Johnson, Roberta Sen-ner and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company;
KEVIN K. GIPSON, Attorney for Defendant and Cross-Claimant, Budget Rent-A-Car of New Orleans, Inc.
After consideration of the facts, law and arguments of counsel, as set out in post[-]trial memrandums [sic];
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that there be judgment herein in favor of defendants, Karen Johnson, Roberta Senner and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, dismissing in its entirety the third-party demand of Budget Rent-A-Car of New Orleans, Inc.
The Court finds that Budget is a self-insured under Louisiana Law and is therefore responsible for their own repairs in this case.

A devolutive appeal was granted Budget on November 10, 1988. No answer to this appeal or separate appeal has been filed.

The trial transcript reveals that counsel for Budget reduced its third-party demand to $5000 to conform to the jurisdiction of the court. Various exhibits were entered by stipulation, including the rental agreement. First called by plaintiff was Sidney Foster, III, who states that on October 1, 1986, after taking a friend home, he ran into the rear of plaintiff’s bus. It was raining, and Foster was driving a Budget rental car rented — he says — to Karen Johnson, with whom plaintiff had been living a month and a half to two months prior to the accident. During that time, he had driven Ms. Johnson’s car, which she would leave with him when she went to work in the morning. She never told him he couldn’t use her car. As to the rental car particularly, Foster testifies as follows:

Q. Did Karen Johnson give you permission to drive the car from Budget Rent A Car that was involved in the accident on October 1, 1986?
A. Yes, Ma’am.
Q. Did she tell you in anyway whatsoever that you were not to use the car from Budget Rent A Car?
A. No, ma’am.
Q. Did she make any statement to you that you would not be covered under the insurance?
[1330]*1330A. No, ma’am.
Q. As far as you knew you had full use of the car?
A. Yes, ma’am.

On cross-examination, Foster reveals no one else was in the car he was driving at the time of the accident. Foster accompanied Johnson when she rented the car but signed none of the papers. He concedes that the night before the accident he had been driving with an expired license. On redirect (under the act), Foster says that, during the day prior to the accident, Karen Johnson had been a passenger in the rental car when he was driving it.

Next called by plaintiff, Gene Watson says he went to a concert with Foster and Johnson on October 1, 1986, and Foster drove the Budget rental car. Johnson never said anything concerning Foster not driving and let him use the car after they returned home such that it seemed to Watson that Foster had permission to do so.

Next called on behalf of his case was David Fontana, a school bus driver. He describes the accident as follows:

I was approaching Lapalco and Manhattan where I had to stop to pick up two Brother Martin students. I was in the right lane. About 250 feet before I approached it I put my warning lights on and we started to come to a stop. At the time the light at the intersection was red. I put my signs out, opened the door, picked up the students. Right as they was approaching the bus right before they got on the car slammed into the back of me.

It will cost $1607.04 to repair the bus plus some $800 in loss of time.

In lieu of testimony by the responding police officer, counsel stipulate, the police report is to be received into evidence.

Next called by plaintiff as an adverse party was Karen Johnson, who corroborates that she was living with Foster at the time of the accident. The keys to the rental car lay atop her stereo when Foster took them, she says. She says she did not tell him that he could not use the car the day of the accident but neither did she say that he could. Inasmuch as they had planned to fill the car with gas and return it the day of the accident, she assumed he was taking the car to get gas, yelled for him to wait for her, but did not physically try to stop his taking it.

On cross-examination, Johnson says she had rented the car to go to a September 27 concert in Lafayette. Her mother also signed the contract because she had the requisite credit card. Johnson read the rental agreement before she signed it. She corroborates that Foster accompanied them when the car was rented but signed none of the papers. She did not know his driver's license had expired. Asked again as to her plans for the day and how Foster gained access to the car, Johnson explains:

We were going to clean the vehicle up, gas it up, and return the vehicle.

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Bluebook (online)
547 So. 2d 1328, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 1262, 1989 WL 68671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fontana-v-foster-lactapp-1989.