Guidry v. Market Basket Stores, Inc.

164 So. 3d 402, 2014 La.App. 3 Cir. 1283, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 903
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 6, 2015
DocketNo. 14-1283
StatusPublished

This text of 164 So. 3d 402 (Guidry v. Market Basket Stores, Inc.) 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
Guidry v. Market Basket Stores, Inc., 164 So. 3d 402, 2014 La.App. 3 Cir. 1283, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 903 (La. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

GENOVESE, Judge.

| ,In this personal injury action, Plaintiff, Destiny Guidry, appeals a judgment entered pursuant to jury verdict dismissing her lawsuit with prejudice. The jury found no fault on the part of Defendant, Kenneth Wyant, an employee of Defendant, Market Basket Stores, Inc. (Market Basket). For the following reasons,.we reverse the jury’s finding-as to fault, but affirm the judgment in favor of Defendants on the basis that Plaintiff failed to prove [404]*404that her alleged injury was legally caused by Mr. Wyant’s fault.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On June 14, 2011, Ms. Guidry was a patron at the Market Basket grocery store on Third Avenue in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Ms. Guidry alleges that while shopping in the meat department with her cousins, Contrina Cahee and Khadisha Ca-hee, she suffered injury to her right ankle as a result of being struck by a stock cart recklessly operated by Mr. Wyant.1 Ms. Guidry describes the incident as a violent collision which left her right leg pinned under Mr. Wyant’s stock cart and which caused her to be struck by several loose cans that were originally on the stock cart. Ms. Guidry went to the emergency room at W.O. Moss Regional Hospital for pain and swelling in her right ankle on June 18, 2011. She again sought treatment for her right ankle on June 28, 2011, at the emergency room of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. Ultimately, but not until March 10, 2013, Ms. Guidry underwent surgery for repair of the peroneal tendon of her right ankle, an injury she claims resulted from the June 2011 Market Basket incident.

[2Ms. Guidry filed this personal injury action on June 1, 2012, against Mr. Wyant and Market Basket. A jury trial was held on March 12-14, 2014, during which time Ms. Guidry moved for a directed verdict on the issues of liability and causation.2 The trial court denied the motion, stating in part: “In the matter before the [c]ourt[,] it does appear that [Ms. Guidry has] established that there has been an incident. However, the allegations with regard to fault are at issue, specifically as to the actual mechanics of what occurred on June 14th of 2011.” Subsequently, the jury returned a verdict finding no fault on the part of Mr. Wyant. On the Jury Verdict Form, the first question was whether Mr. Wyant was “at fault in causing an accident on June 14, 2011?” The jury answered in the negative, which terminated their deliberation. Accordingly, the jury did not proceed to the next question relative to causation which asked, “Was defendant Kenneth Wyant’s fault a cause of injury to Destiny Guidry?”

A judgment was signed in accordance with the jury’s verdict. Ms. Guidry filed a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict, which the trial court denied. Ms. Guidry appeals.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR

In her sole assignment of error, Ms. Guidry asserts: “The jury committed manifest error and made a decision which was clearly wrong when it concluded that[] Defendant, Kenneth Wyant, was not at fault in causing an accident on June 14th, 2011.”

| gLAW AND DISCUSSION

In Purvis v. Grant Parish School Board, 13-1424, p. 4 (La.2/14/14), 144 So.3d 922, 926, our supreme court set forth the applicable appellate standard of review relative to this case as follows:

In Stobart v. State, through DOTD, 617 So.2d 880 (La.1993), this court set forth a two-part test for the reversal of the fact-finder’s determinations:
1) The appellate court must find from the record that a reasonable factual [405]*405basis does not exist for the finding of the trial court, and
2) the appellate court must further determine that the record establishes that the finding is clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous).
This test dictates that a reviewing court must do more than simply review the record for some evidence that may controvert the trial court ruling. Rather, it requires a review of the entire record to determine whether manifest error has occurred. Thus, the issue before the court of appeal is not whether the trier of fact was right or wrong, but whether the fact-finder’s conclusion was a reasonable one. London Towne Condominium Homeowner’s Association v. London Towne Company, 06-401 (La.10/17/06), 939 So.2d 1227.

Thus, this court must not set aside the jury’s verdict unless we find that it is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong.

After hearing testimony from all who witnessed the incident — Ms. Guidry, Contrina Cahee, Khadisha Cahee, and Mr. Wyant — the jury determined that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, Mr. Wyant was not at fault in causing an accident. Ms. Guidry argues that the jury erroneously determined that Mr. Wyant was not at fault. We agree.

Mr. Wyant and Market Basket do not deny that an incident occurred on June 14, 2011. The record indicates, and it is undisputed, that Mr. Wyant, and Mr. Wyant alone, was in exclusive control of the stock cart on the date of the incident |4and that he was pushing the stock cart, loaded with cans, when the cans fell off the stock cart. No one else had control of the stock cart. No one testified to the contrary. Though it is heavily disputed as to whether the stock cart, or the cans, or both, actually struck Ms. Guidry, it is uncontroverted that Mr. Wyant was solely in control of the stock cart and the cans prior to cans leaving the stock cart.

Thus, our review of the record clearly indicates that there is no reasonable factual basis for the jury’s finding that Mr. Wyant was not at fault in causing an accident on June 14, 2011, and the record clearly establishes that the jury’s finding is manifestly erroneous and clearly wrong. Therefore, we reverse the jury’s finding as to fault and find that Mr. Wyant was at fault in causing an accident on June 14, 2011.

Having found legal error, the manifest error standard of review no longer applies. As set forth by this court in Clement v. Citron, 13-63, p. 4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/19/13), 115 So.3d 1260,1264:

Where ... legal error interdicts the fact-finding process, the manifest error standard no longer applies. Ferrell v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 94-1252 (La.2/20/95), 650 So.2d 742. In such instances, if the record is complete, the appellate court is charged to make its own independent de novo review of the record.

We find that the record before us is complete; hence, we shall make an independent de novo review of the record and decide this case.

In Detraz v. Lee, 05-1263, p. 8 (La.1/17/07), 950 So.2d 557, 562 (quoting Fowler v. Roberts, 556 So.2d 1, 4 (La. 1989)), our supreme court defined liability in a negligence case as:

The determination of liability in a negligence case usually requires proof of five separate elements: (1) proof that the defendant had a duty to conform his conduct to a specific standard (the duty element); (2) proof that the defendant’s conduct failed to conform to the appropriate standard (the breach element); (3) proof that the 1 ^defendant’s substand[406]

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Related

Stobart v. State Through DOTD
617 So. 2d 880 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
Fowler v. Roberts
556 So. 2d 1 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1990)
London Towne Condo. Ass'n v. LONDON TOWNE
939 So. 2d 1227 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2006)
Ferrell v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co.
650 So. 2d 742 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1995)
Detraz v. Lee
950 So. 2d 557 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2007)
Vita v. City of Lake Charles
106 So. 3d 232 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
Clement v. Citron
115 So. 3d 1260 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
Purvis v. Grant Parish School Board
144 So. 3d 922 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
164 So. 3d 402, 2014 La.App. 3 Cir. 1283, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guidry-v-market-basket-stores-inc-lactapp-2015.