Hall v. Excelsior Steam Laundry Co.

5 La. App. 6, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 448
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1926
DocketNo. 2201
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 5 La. App. 6 (Hall v. Excelsior Steam Laundry 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
Hall v. Excelsior Steam Laundry Co., 5 La. App. 6, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 448 (La. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

CARVER,. J.

For. the reasons, given pi the case .of. John . T. Hall vs. Éxc^lsiqr Steam ' Laundry Company, Limited, No. 2202 on the docket of this court and this day decided, it is decreed that the v.erdicjt of the jury and £he judgment of the lower court thereon be set aside and the case remanded for a new trial.

ODOM, J.

■ This suit, grows out of an automobile collision which took. place between an automobile driven by Mrs. Blanche E. Hall, the wife of John T. Hall, and defendant’s laundry wagon, driven?" at theitiriie by one of defendant’s employees'.

. The suit was brought by John T. Hall; husband of ’Mrs, Blanche E. Hall, acting as administrator pro tempore, it ■ being claimed by plaintiff that Mrs. Hall was severely injured and shocked on account of the collision, which injury and shock finally resulted in her insanity.

Subsequent to the date on which the suit was filed Mrs. Hall died, and John T. Hall and a child by his marriage with-Mrs. Hall were substituted as parties plaintiff, they having inherited Mrs. Hall’s right of action.

The plaintiff alleged that the driver of defendant’s laundry truck drove the truck into and against the automobile driven by Mrs. Hall, inflicting upon her serious injüries and which seriously frightened her, producing great physical pain and mental anguish, “impairing and shattering her nervous system, causing soon thereafter, as the direct and proximate result thereof, a habitual state of imbecility and insanity, which is incurable and permanent”.

Defendant, in answer, admitted its corporate capacity and the alleged collision, but denied negligenpe on the part of its driver; and denied that plaintiff’s wife [8]*8was injured as alleged; and, in an amended and supplemental answer it specifically set up that in case the court should find and hold that its driver was negligent, “then and in that event your defendant shows that Mrs. Blanche E. Hall, the driver of said automobile, was guilty of gross contributory negligence in that she drove her car with defective brakes and at a reckless rate of speed, without looking or listening or taking any precautions whatsoever”, which contributory negligence is plead in bar of plaintiff’s recovery.

The case was tried by a jury, which rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $5000.00, which verdict was approved by the court and judgment rendered accordingly.

Tlie defendant appealed, and plaintiff answered the appeal, asking that the amount be increased.

OPINION

The collision took place at the intersection of Creswell street and Herndon avenue in the city of Shreveport. Creswell street runs north, and south and is intersected by Herndon avenue at right angles. The Highland street car line, leading from the business section of the city, runs, in that particular vicinity, south along Creswell street until it reaches Herndon avenue, where it turns east and proceeds along that avenue.

Creswell street is thirty-six feet wide from curb to curb, both north and south of Herndon. Herndon avenue is thirty-six feet wide east of Creswell, but west of that street it is only twenty-eight feet wide. This is, therefore, what is termed an •“irregular” intersection1 or-.crossing^,..-

For some reason, probably to get more space for the street car line, the southwest corner of the block, northeast of the intersection, was cut off and the curb line built in a circle around that corner, so that a point at the intersection of a line drawn north and south on the east side of Creswell street and a line drawn east and west along the north edge of Herndon avenue is about eight feet out in the street from the curb.

The street car line has a double track on these streets, both tracks making a curve around the southwest corner of the block, northeast of the intersection. The inside rail of the inbound track coming out of Herndon avenue and into Creswell, runs within about three feet of the curb at the nearest corner. The inside rail of the outbound track runs within about twenty feet of the same point. The rails of the street car track are 4.75 feet apart, so that the outside rail of the outbound track is approximately twenty-five feet from the curb at the curve.

Mrs. Hall was driving her car west on Herndon avenue, and the laundry truck was being driven south on Creswell street. Mrs. Hall, it seems, was on the right-hand side of the avenue and intended, evidently, to cross Creswell street and proceed west on Herndon.

The laundry truck was on the west side of Creswell street, going south.

The two cars reached the intersection at the same time, and it is clear from the testimony that if the driver of the laundry truck had continued south on Creswell there would, have been no collision; but when he got to the intersection he made a curve to the left in order to proceed east on Herndon. As he made the turn, the two cars collided, the left front

[9]*9\ wheel and left end of the front bumper of Mrs. Hall’s car striking the rear left side of the truck at or near the rear fender. ■

The witnesses say that the two cars “hung up” and had to be pulled apart. The impact caused the rear end of Mrs. Hall’s car to swerve around to the right, so that when it stopped the body of the car was fronting towards the southwest and the front wheel turned towards the west.

There is some discrepancy in the testimony as to the exact point where the collision occurred. There were only three eye-witnesses to the collision — Mrs. Hall, who died previous to the trial, Mr. Chapman the driver of the truck, and Mr. Tucker, who was on the truck with him; but Doctor Harrington, Mr. Flournoy, and a young man named Bauguw, all of whom lived in that immediate vicinity, went to the scene at once, and each testified as to the position of the cars before they were moved.

From all the testimony, we Conclude that the collision took place on the outbound car track at a point on a line drawn approximately northeast from the center of the intersection of the two streets — in other words, between the manhole which is at or very near the point where a line drawn north and south through the center of Creswell crosses a line drawn east and west through the center of Herndon and the southwest corner of the block, northeast of the intersection.

Using the plat filed in evidence, which is referred to by both parties as correct, we place the point of collision on the outbound car track approximately fifteen feet northeast of the manhole and something like twenty-three feet from the street curb at the northeast comer of the intersection.

As already stated, the driver of the truck was going south on Creswell and when he got to this corner he attempted to make a left turn intp Herndon going east, following the outbound car track around the curve.

The negligence which plaintiff charges against defendant is that the track driver “cut” the corner and ran too close to the curb, plaintiff claiming that in making the turn the driver of the truck should have gone further down Creswell and should have gone around the manhole in the center of the intersection and then turned to the east, as is required by ordinance of the city, in which event there would have been no collision. The ordinance of the city requires that drivers of vehicles on the streets in making left-hand turns at intersections shall go to the right of the center of intersection and shall pass them before 'turning, to the left.

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5 La. App. 6, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-excelsior-steam-laundry-co-lactapp-1926.