Guillot v. Guillot

161 So. 3d 841, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 364, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 3065, 2014 WL 7264510
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 23, 2014
DocketNo. 14-364
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 161 So. 3d 841 (Guillot v. Guillot) 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. Guillot, 161 So. 3d 841, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 364, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 3065, 2014 WL 7264510 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

CONERY, Judge.

|, FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

After farming for over thirty years, Plaintiff, Wayne Guillot, left the family [843]*843farming partnership in February 2006. Wayne and his brother, defendant Reece Guillot, had jointly farmed rice and craw-fish, first with their father, and, when he retired, with their own sons. The brothers had grown up and worked together all of their lives, had served as best man at each other’s weddings, and had raised their sons together. When Wayne’s son left the farming partnership, tension in the family began to escalate. Wayne eventually also left the farming partnership to pursue a career as a crop duster and, at the time of the incident in question, Wayne owned a crop dusting service. With tensions rising between the brothers and their sons, a partition of the real estate owned by the partnership was finalized only months before the incident in question. However, the ownership of all moveables and farm equipment was still highly contested, and would not be settled until after the incident prompting this lawsuit.

While the partition of the farm equipment was still in litigation, on March 16, 2008, Wayne went onto the farm property and, using his own trailer, loaded a craw-fish boat1 used in Reece’s crawfish farming operation onto his trailer and then proceeded to leave the property. March 16, 2008 was Palm Sunday, the start of the busiest week of crawfish season, a fact Wayne acknowledged. At the time the crawfish boat was taken from the farm property, Wayne did not yet have his own crawfish pond and would not have been able to use the crawfish boat in crawfish ^farming operations until the following season. Wayne acknowledged that craw-fish farming was one of the main sources of income for Reece’s farm at that time.

A neighbor alerted Reece that Wayne was removing the crawfish boat from the farm property. Reece tried to stop Wayne from taking the boat but Wayne drove around Reece’s truck. At some point in the sequence of events, Wayne called his wife, who was at their house, and told her to call the police because he was on his way home with the crawfish boat and Reece was following him. Wayne told her that “[tjhere’s going to be trouble.” While in pursuit of Wayne, Reece alerted his son, Benjamin, his partner in the farming operations and codefendant herein, and told him that Wayne was taking a boat they needed for crawfishing. Benjamin left his house and went in the direction that Wayne and Reece were travelling. Benjamin then blocked the road with his truck to try to stop Wayne from going to his house with the crawfish boat. Wayne went off of the road to get around Benjamin’s truck and Benjamin’s and Wayne’s trucks collided in the process. Wayne was able to get around Benjamin’s truck and continue travelling to his home with the boat. Reece and Benjamin followed in close pursuit.

When Wayne arrived home, he parked his truck on his driveway with the crawfish boat in tow. Reece was right behind him and parked on Wayne’s driveway in the vicinity of the rear of Wayne’s truck and the boat. A fight then ensued near the back of Wayne’s truck and the front of Reece’s truck. The evidence is in dispute as to the exact location of the men in relation to their trucks and who threw the first punch. Wayne claimed that Reece charged him and hit him first. Reece [844]*844claimed that Wayne aggressively charged him and hit him first. There is no dispute that Reece struck Wayne in the eye, and Wayne went down. The fight ended with Reece on top of Wayne, and Reece pummeling Wayne until |<¡he tired of swinging. Wayne was hit in the eye and the surrounding area immediately became swollen and discolored. Reece had a bit of blood around his ear. Benjamin arrived as the two brothers were on the ground, with Reece on top, hitting Wayne. Benjamin was not involved in the fight, except as to allegedly egg his father on. Benjamin was sued only for damages to Wayne’s truck.

The police arrived and questioned witnesses. Reece left to get a trailer, returned to Wayne’s house, put the boat on his trailer, and returned to the farm property with the crawfish boat in tow.

It was later confirmed by Dr. Casanova, Wayne’s treating physician, that Wayne suffered from a fracture to the orbital bones around his left eye, requiring surgery. Wayne claims he now has permanent double vision and can no longer perform the duties of a pilot in his crop dusting business. In his brief to this court, Wayne is claiming that he has $7,363.60 in medical bills, $680,000.00 in past lost income at the time of trial, and an annual loss of future earning capacity equal to $130,000.00 in pilot fees because he can no longer fly and has been forced to pay substitute pilots. Wayne claimed that pursuing a flying career was one of the main reasons he left the family farming operation in the first place and also claims past and future mental anguish, pain and suffering.

Wayne had filed suit against Reece for his personal injuries, Benjamin for his property damage, and Farm Bureau Insurance Company, as insurer of Reece and Benjamin. Farm Bureau filed a motion for summary judgment stating that the conduct committed by Reece and Benjamin was excluded under their policy because their actions were intentional. The trial court granted Farm Bureau’s Rmotion, dismissing the insurance company from the suit. The district court’s grant of summary judgment was later upheld by a panel of this court.2

Wayne’s case against Reece and Benjamin proceeded to trial by jury. Using special interrogatories, the jury found that Wayne had “consented” to the intentional battery by Reece, and that Reece was not liable for the injuries to Wayne. Additionally, the jury found Benjamin liable for all damages to Wayne’s vehicle due to Benjamin blocking the roadway. Judgment was signed dismissing Wayne’s suit against Reece and this timely appeal followed. There was no appeal from the judgment for property damages to Wayne’s truck in favor of Wayne against Benjamin, and that issue is not before us.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Wayne asserts the following issues on appeal:

1) The jury committed manifest error in concluding that Wayne Guillot consented to the intentional battery he sustained in the face of overwhelming testimony that Reece Guillot was the sole aggressor and that his act was intentional.
2) The court’s jury charges and verdict form constitute a substantive, material legal error, as was objected to by the Plaintiffs counsel, because both in the court’s charges, as well as the verdict form, the “aggressor doctrine” was applied wherein any finding of “consent” by the Plaintiff, relieved the defendant [845]*845of all liability, directly in contravention of Louisiana Civil Code, Article 2328, and the comparative fault laws of this State.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Our standard of review is well-established:

[T]he issue to be resolved by a reviewing court is not whether the trier of fact was right or wrong, but whether the factfin-der’s conclusion was a reasonable one. See generally, Cosse v. Allen-Bradley Co., 601 So.2d 1349, 1351 (La.1992); Housley v. Cerise, 579 So.2d 973 (La.1991); Sistler v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 558 So.2d 1106, 1112 (La.1990).

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Bluebook (online)
161 So. 3d 841, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 364, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 3065, 2014 WL 7264510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guillot-v-guillot-lactapp-2014.