Higginbotham v. Frazier

92 So. 2d 89
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 2, 1957
Docket4310
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 92 So. 2d 89 (Higginbotham v. Frazier) 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
Higginbotham v. Frazier, 92 So. 2d 89 (La. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

92 So.2d 89 (1957)

Ernest Leon HIGGINBOTHAM, Sr., Individually, and on Behalf of his minor children, Ernest Leon Higginbotham, Jr., and James Edward Higginbotham, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
H. E. FRAZIER et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 4310.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

January 2, 1957.
Rehearing Denied February 4, 1957.
Writ of Certiorari Denied April 1, 1957.

*90 Huckabay & Wall, Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Wm. T. Bennett, Clinton, for appellee.

TATE, Judge.

Plaintiff filed this suit individually and on behalf of his two little boys to recover damages for them and medical expenses sustained as the result of injuries suffered by them in an auto-truck collision. Defendant Frazier and his liability insurer appeal from the award of substantial damages.

On a previous appearance in this court the case was remanded on the ground that plaintiff had not proved his legal capacity as father (in a still-existing valid marriage) to institute suit on behalf of these minors, Higginbotham v. Inland Empire Ins. Co., 88 So.2d 711. On the remand, after additional evidence, it was stipulated that plaintiff was indeed the proper party to institute suit on behalf of his sons for their personal injuries. The matter is now before us for decision on the merits.

The unfortunate accident giving rise to this suit occurred at about 7:30 a. m. on July 31, 1955, 2½ miles east of Clinton, La. It was drizzling. The two Higginbotham boys, aged 5 and 6, were riding in the 1955 Chevrolet of James Overton, their uncle, who was driving eastward on Louisiana Highway 10 at a speed of about 40 mph. This highway is black-topped and 18 feet in width. The road surface was slick and slippery.

Immediately before the accident, defendant Frazier's 2 ton Dodge truck-van, loaded with 9,000 lbs. of milk, turned right (westward) onto the main highway from a private driveway on the north side of the highway. Perceiving the entrance of the big truck onto the highway, Overton applied the brakes of his car, which went into a skid and crashed into Frazier's truck, destroying Overton's automobile and causing serious personal injuries to his young passengers.

Able counsel for defendant has succinctly and correctly stated in his brief the factual issue as follows: "The sole question, from the standpoint of liability, is whether Frazier, in making a right turn out of the Rollins' driveway [onto the highway], kept to his own right lane or drove partially over into the lane for opposing traffic" (upon which latter lane Overton's car was approaching.)

Whether or not the actual impact occurred on the north (or Frazier's, i. e., defendants') lane, or on the south (or Overton's, i. e., plaintiff's) lane—if defendant Frazier's slow-moving truck was crossing over into and obstructing Overton's lane immediately in the path of his car, even though only momentarily, the District Court could properly find that this action of Frazier negligently created a sudden emergency and is a proximate cause of this accident; Overton's improvident action in applying the brakes in response to this emergency suddenly created by defendant is then deemed to be a consequence of defendant's initial negligence. Lofton v. Cottingham, La.App. 2 Cir., 172 So. 377. See also LSA-R.S. 32:237, subd. E; McMorris v. Webb, La.App. 1 Cir., 67 So.2d 146; Dickinson v. Long Springs Lumber Company, La.App. 2 Cir., 32 So.2d 407. (Whether Overton's speed or lookout contributed to the accident is immaterial to this inquiry, since his negligence—if any— is not imputed to these children passengers).

If, on the other hand, the application of the brakes by plaintiff's driver and the consequent skid and loss of control resulted, not from defendant Frazier suddenly proceeding to obstruct plaintiff's lane, but instead from plaintiff's driver's unreasonably based and unrealized fear that Frazier's truck might obstruct his passage, then defendant Frazier's actions created no sudden emergency, as plaintiff's driver's path was unobstructed "other than by his naked anticipation of a possible collision," Commercial Standard Insurance Company *91 v. Johnson, 228 La. 273, 82 So.2d 8, at page 9. See Nicolle v. Gayden, La.App. 1 Cir., 83 So.2d 680. The duty of a driver intending to enter the main highway from a private driveway does not require him to desist from making his entry so long as any traffic is in sight; his duty is only not to make the entry so as to obstruct the passage of highway traffic approaching from either side.

The District Court found that a proximate cause of the accident was Frazier's entry upon the highway from his private driveway so as to cause a sudden emergency, and further found that the actual impact had occurred on Overton's side of the highway onto which the body of the truck had projected. Considering plaintiff's driver's testimony (accepted by the trial court) that the big milk truck pulled out to cross the center of the highway when plaintiff's car (proceeding at a speed of 40 mph or 58.4 feet per second) had passed the "40 mph" sign 300' west of the Rollins' driveway, we think the District Court correctly found that plaintiff's driver was faced with an emergency of defendant's creation, since the huge truck slowly moving was blocking or about to block a portion of plaintiff's lane of the highway when plaintiff's car was just five seconds distant therefrom.

The crux of the District Court's factual finding is its oral comment at conclusion of the evidence, Tr-143, "I believe that it is an impossibility to drive a two-ton truck loaded with 9,000 lbs. into that highway, without going over the yellow line * * * I furthermore don't see how it would be possible for the driver of this truck, Mr. Frazier, to drive a big truck of this nature, out into the driveway [highway] and park it 12 or 15 feet [from the driveway], however the distance may have been, without having gone out into that highway."

We do not believe this finding to be manifestly erroneous. The driveway was very steep with a 20 grade, and it was not possible to get a good view of oncoming traffic until the milk truck came up to the very lip of the highway; the body of the milk truck was 7 ft. 10" in width, whereas the highway 18 feet wide, with 4' shoulders on both sides bounded by a deep ditch.

While defendant claims with some justification that the District Court should not have taken into consideration his personal knowledge of the steep incline and of the impossibility of a heavily loaded truck of making the turn without encroaching onto plaintiff's lane, we believe that the District Court's finding is as it stated sufficiently supported by the evidence in the record.

The substance of this testimony is that it would be most difficult to accomplish such a turn from this particular driveway without going across the center of the highway. R. J. Rollins, called by defendant, frankly stated that as to making a sharp turn to the highway, while it was not impossible, "chances are with a load on it, you just wouldn't try on it." (Tr-140). (See also testimony of Hogge, Tr-51, et seq.; testimony of Frazier, e. g. Tr-102.)

Defendant Frazier himself indicated the difficulty of this maneuver in his explanation that to accomplish same he would "pull over east [left] as far as I can and then turned back this way (indicating) so I won't have to get over the center of the road", Tr-92, which maneuver of turning to the left and then turning back to the right is not corroborated by the testimony of any other individual. While Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
92 So. 2d 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/higginbotham-v-frazier-lactapp-1957.