Gassiott v. Southland Produce Co.

138 So. 214, 18 La. App. 437, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 368
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 9, 1931
DocketNo. 4131
StatusPublished

This text of 138 So. 214 (Gassiott v. Southland Produce 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
Gassiott v. Southland Produce Co., 138 So. 214, 18 La. App. 437, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 368 (La. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

CULPEPPER, J.

This is a suit for personal injuries and property damage arising out of a collision between plaintiff’s Buick automobile, which he was driving at the time, and defendant’s half-ton Chevrolet truck, driven by a truck driver employee of defendant. The collision occurred at the intersection of Market and Lake streets in the city of Shreveport, on January 13,1931.

It is alleged by the plaintiff that the collision, and ■ resultant injuries and damages, were due entirely to the fault and negligence of defendant’s said truck driver, Sam Henderson, and for which plaintiff claims damages in the sum of $250 for pain and suffering sustained by him, $250 for mental anguish and nervousness, $50 for doctor’s bill incurred, and $413.75 as damages to his automobile.

Defendant in answer denies negligence on the part of its truck driver, and, in the alternative, pleads concurrent contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff as a bar to recovery. Defendant in reconvention alleges .and demands damages in the sum of $60.40 caused to its truck in the collision, alleging that the collision was caused solely by the negligence of the plaintiff in suit.

On trial of the case, there was judgment in favor of plaintiff in the suit in the amount and sums, respectively, of $413.75, as damages to plaintiff’s automobile, $50 for doctor’s bill incurred, $125 for pain and suffering, and $125 for mental anguish and suffering, sustained by plaintiff. The demands in recon-vention were rejected. Defendant, Southland Produce Company, Incorporated, alone has appealed.

Market street and Lake street intersect and cross each other at right angles. At said intersection, the city maintains and operates a traffic signal' light device for the purpose of regulating traffic. This device is suspended over the center of the intersection and has three alternating colored signal lights for each approach to the intersection. The colors are green, which permits traffic to enter and pass over the intersection; amber, which indicates caution; and red, which is a signal to stop and wait until the green light appears. The city has an ordinance adopted and in force requiring the observance of these signals.

On the- occasion of the collision, plaintiff was driving his car along Market street going southward, and Sam Henderson was driving defendant’s truck along Lake street in a westerly direction, both approaching the intersection of the two streets. Plaintiff contends that when he. entered the intersection, the green light was showing on Market street along which he was traveling, which gave him the right of way over the intersection, and at which time the red stop light was showing on the Lake street approach; that Henderson, disregarding said red light signal then showing on Lake street, and driving at a speed in excess of that permitted by city ordinance, and without warning to plaintiff, drove said truck into the street intersection immediately in front of plaintiff's on-coming car; that on seeing the truck was passing the red light and being unable to stop his car in time, ho unavoidably ran into the truck. On the other hand, it is the contention of defendant that its truck entered the intersection on the green light and not the red light, as contended by plaintiff; and that plaintiff entered on the red light and not the green. Defendant also contends that its truck entered the intersection before plaintiff did, and that, even if plaintiff entered on the green light (which is denied), it was plaintiff’s duty to have stopped at the intersection when he saw the truck had already entered, and, having the last clear chance to avoid an accident, it became plaintiff’s duty to stop.

The testimony in this case is conflicting, as is more or less the case involving all questions of fact. The trial judge resolved the testimony in plaintiff’s favor, which, of course, must have great weight with this court.

Plaintiff is positive and emphatic that he entered the intersection on the green light and 'that defendant's truck entered it on Lake street while the red light was showing on that street. Four witnesses testifying for plaintiff were equally positive on this point. One of these witnesses, John Ho watt, testified that he started walking across Lake street, while the red light was on, on his way to the Hunter Building then under construction on or near the corner of Lake and Market streets, [216]*216and on the opposite side of Rake from plaintiff’s approaching car. He was watching the light, knowing that he had started to cross on a red light, and when he had walked about ten feet, the light, which was on Market, changed to green, thus giving plaintiff a green light. Witness continued across Lake, stepped up on the sidewalk or curb, and spoke to the superintendent of the construction work, at which time the collision occurred. Witness testifies that he had walked leisurely across the street, and that the distance he walked from his position at the time the green light came on was, he judged to be, thirty or forty feet. This could have given plaintiff ample time to have entered the intersection on the same green light and to have proceeded until the collision occurred.

T. D. Grimes, a carpenter looking for work on the Hunter Building at the time, testified that he.was standing on the south side of Lake street next to said building, and between thirty and thirty-five feet from point of collision, and was looking at the witness Howard as Howard came across the street, and was in plain view of the light. Grimes states that he noticed that Howard started across on the red light, and when he had gone eight or ten feet, Grimes noticed that the light had changed to green and Howard proceeded on across and he was about four or five feet from the sidewalk on the opposite side when the crash came, and Howard jumped to get out of the way. Grimes testified that the red light was on on Lake street at that time. He was positive that it was on. He was equally positive that plaintiff entered the intersection on the green light.

E. M. Dinkens, another one of plaintiff’s witnesses, testified that he was working as switchman for the I. C. Railroad at the time, at the point where the railroad crosses Market street, a short distance north of the intersection of Market and Lake streets; that he saw plaintiff and whistled at him, wanting to talk to him as he crossed the railroad on bis way toward the street intersection, but plaintiff, not hearing him, did not stop. Din-kens testifies that he continued to watch plaintiff as plaintiff proceeded on his way, being particularly attracted by the new car plaintiff was driving. Witness is positive that plaintiff had the green light at the intersection, because he was (quoting), “X was. looking right at it.” Asked which he was looking at, the ear or the light, witness answered: “Well, at the time, the time, the way it is up like that, X could see them both, all at' the same time. The light is on a hill.” Asked which he paying most attention to, witness answered: “When the accident happened the light was green, yes, sir.” He further states that just before the accident happened, “the lights turned caution.”

Rex Patterson, another one of plaintiff’s “witnesses, testified that he was about two hundred yards from the point of the accident when it happened, and was traveling along Lake street approaching the intersection and saw the light on Lake street. He is positive that the light on that street was red at the time of the accident because (quoting), “I saw a light.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 214, 18 La. App. 437, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gassiott-v-southland-produce-co-lactapp-1931.