Guillot v. Daimlerchrysler Corp.

50 So. 3d 173, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1485, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1280, 2010 WL 3721479
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 24, 2010
Docket2008-CA-1485
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 50 So. 3d 173 (Guillot v. Daimlerchrysler Corp.) 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
Guillot v. Daimlerchrysler Corp., 50 So. 3d 173, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1485, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1280, 2010 WL 3721479 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

ROLAND L. BELSOME, Judge.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 1

_JjOn May 21, 1999, August and Juli Guil-lot and their three-year-old daughter, Madison, entered Juli’s 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee in preparation to drive from their home in Violet, Louisiana to the North Shore Regional Medical Center in Slidell. Juli was nine months pregnant with a boy, who August and Juli had named Collin. After the three of them were seated in the vehicle, August shifted the vehicle into reverse, and Madison, who was in the back seat, asked for a songbook. To accommodate Madison’s request, Juli exited the vehicle, closed the front passenger door, and opened the rear passenger door to reach for Madison’s book. Remembering that some phone calls might need to be made, Juli asked August to retrieve their cell phone. August exited the vehicle2 and proceeded towards the rear of the Jeep.

As Juli was bending over to retrieve the songbook, she looked up through the passenger window and noticed that August had passed the driver’s side rear door. Juli then felt the door of the Jeep pressing against her arm and midsection. |2 Juli screamed for August as she became pinned between the door of the Jeep and a brick column supporting the carport. Realizing that Juli was in severe distress, and noticing that the Jeep was moving backwards, August re-entered the vehicle, stepped on the brake, and pulled forward. Juli collapsed and began to experience severe pain, nausea, and weakness, and could feel Collin kicking inside of her. Juli was suffering from massive internal bleeding.

As a result of Juli’s midsection being crushed between the door of the Jeep and the column, Collin had perforated the top of Juli’s uterus and was pushed into her abdominal cavity. Juli required surgery to remove Collin from her abdomen, and also to cut her pericardial sac to determine whether her heart had been damaged by Collin’s displacement, as a contusion in that area was detected. Juli was hospitalized for five days following the accident, and Collin had to be placed on life support. Collin was permanently brain damaged due to lack of oxygen. After seventeen days, August and Juli made the difficult decision, along with their physician, Dr. Jane Reynolds, to remove Collin from life support on June 7,1999.3

On June 9,1999, local counsel for Chrysler LLC faxed a copy of the Guillots’ accident report to Chrysler headquarters.

On July 13, 2001, Juli received a telephone call from a Los Angeles Times reporter who had investigated complaints on Jeep Grand Cherokees and noticed an article regarding her May 21, 1999 accident from the Associated Press. The reporter described his Times article detailing the [179]*179investigations, and sent Juli a copy of his article via electronic mail that same day. After the discussion with the reporter, the Guillots consulted with an attorney for the first time, and filed their petition on November 30, 2001. The matter went to trial on March 31, 2008.

|3On April 10, 2008, the trial court rendered judgment on the jury’s April 8, 2008 verdict, awarding total damages to Appel-lees in the amount of $5,080,000.00, allocating 99% of the fault to Chrysler, LLC and 1% to August Guillot. Juli Guillot was awarded, before the 1% reduction, $2,775,000.00; August Guillot was awarded $2,100,000.00; and to August and Juli Guil-lot as tutors of their minor child, Madison Guillot, $125,000.00. The court also awarded special damages and a survival action for Collin in the amount of $80,000.00.4 This appeal followed.5

APPELLANT’S ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR6

1.) The trial court erred as a matter of law in not finding that the action had prescribed, as it was filed two and a half years after the date of the accident.
2.) The trial court erred as a matter of law by refusing to consider evidence that would demonstrate plaintiffs expert’s opinion should have been excluded, and by refusing to rule before trial on the Daubert/Foret objection.
3.) The trial court abused its discretion in admitting expert opinion testimony and other evidence that allowed the jury to find a defective product and causation.
|44.) The trial court erred in admitting inflammatory and irrelevant evidence regarding the fact that the manufacturer’s attorneys had a copy of the police report of the accident shortly after it occurred.
5.) The verdict is clearly wrong in allocating only 1% of fault to August Guillot.
[180]*1806.) The trial court erred in permitting the jury to award elements of general damages that are duplicative and not supported by legal authority.
7.) The jury abused its discretion in awarding excessive general damages.

DISCUSSION

Assignment of Error # 1

In the first assignment of error, Chrysler asserts that the trial court erred in failing to find that the Guillots’ claim had prescribed. It is undisputed that the petition is prescribed on its face,7 as the accident occurred on May 21, 1999, and suit was filed on November 30, 2001; therefore, the burden shifted to Appellees to demonstrate the suspension, interruption, or renunciation of prescription. See London Towne Condominium, Homeowner’s Ass’n v. London Towne Co., 2006-401, pp. 9-10 (La.10/17/06), 939 So.2d 1227, 1234.

This Court has recognized that “[prescription will not begin to run at the earliest possible indication that a plaintiff may have suffered some wrong.” Hoerner v. Wesley-Jensen, Inc., 95-0553, pp. 3-4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/20/96), 684 So.2d 508, 510 (quoting Jordan v. Employee Transfer Corp., 509 So.2d 420, 423 (La.1987)). Rather, prescription begins to run against a claimant when he obtains actual or constructive knowledge of facts indicating a cause of action. Campo v. Correa, 2001-2707, pp. 11-12 (La.6/21/02), 828 So.2d 502, 510. Constructive knowledge of facts “is whatever notice is enough to excite attention and put the | .^injured party on guard and call for inquiry.” Campo, 2001-2007, p. 12, 828 So.2d at 510-11. Constructive knowledge is also “tantamount to knowledge or notice of everything to which a reasonable inquiry may lead,” and is sufficient to commence the running of prescription. Id., p. 12, 828 So.2d at 511. Mere apprehension that something could be wrong, however, is not considered constructive knowledge sufficient to begin the running of prescription. In re Medical Review Panel of Howard, 573 So.2d 472, 474 (La.1991); Cordova v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 387 So.2d 574, 577 (La.1980).

The doctrine of contra non va-lentem agere nulla currit praescriptio, an exception to the rule that prescription runs against all persons unless provided by legislation,8 arose from a “long-established principle of law that one should not be able to take advantage of his own wrongful act.”9 Wimberly v. Gatch, 93-2361 (La.4/11/94), 635 So.2d 206, 212; Nathan v. Carter, 372 So.2d 560, 562 (La.1979). Pursuant to the doctrine of contra non valen-tem,

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Bluebook (online)
50 So. 3d 173, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1485, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1280, 2010 WL 3721479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guillot-v-daimlerchrysler-corp-lactapp-2010.