Home Ins. Co. v. Highway Ins. Underwriters

52 So. 2d 449, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 696
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 1951
DocketNo. 3399
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 52 So. 2d 449 (Home Ins. Co. v. Highway Ins. Underwriters) 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
Home Ins. Co. v. Highway Ins. Underwriters, 52 So. 2d 449, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 696 (La. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

On June 11, 1948 a collision occurred between a vehicle owned :by Ivan Carline and one owned by Byrnes Brothers Trucking Company. On January 13, 1949 a suit was filed wherein plaintiff, the Home Insurance Company, alleged itself to be the collision insurer of Ivan Carline, and that the defendant, Highway Insurance Underwriters, was the public liability insurer of Byrnes Brothers Trucking Company. This suit [450]*450sought a judgment of $1609.38 against Highway Insurance Underwriters, representing the amount of a legal subrogation which had been executed by Ivan Carline in favor of Home Insurance Company.

An answer was filed, and upon July 12, 1949 a supplemental and amended petition was filed in the name of Home Insurance Company and Ivan Carline. In this suit, Home Insurance Company increased its demand to $3,163.47. The supplemental petition made Ivan Carline a party plaintiff for the first time and set forth a demand upon, his behalf for $2,340.00, which consisted of $150.00, the deductible portion of his policy of insurance, and a claim for $2,190.-00 for loss of use of the damaged vehicle while undergoing repairs, from June 12, 1948 through October 20, 1948.

The defendant filed a plea of prescription directed at all of the claims asserted by Ivan Carline and an exception of no right of action directed to Home Insurance Company’s claim.

The trial court maintained the plea of prescription and the exception of no right of action, and from this judgment plaintiffs have appealed.

According to Article 7, Section 10 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction in civil suits “where the amount * * * therein claimed, shall exceed two thousand dollars exclusive of interest, except in suits for damages for physical injuries to, or for the death of a person, or for other damages sustained by such person or his heirs or legal representatives, arising out of the same circumstances”. (Emphasis added.)

According to Section 29 of Article 7, the Courts of Appeal have appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdiction shall extend to all cases, civil and probate, of which the District Courts have exclusive original jurisdiction, regardless of the amount involved exceeding one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, and of which the Supreme Court is not given jurisdiction.

In this case, this is not a suit for damages for physical injuries or for damages caused by or resulting from an act which caused also a physical injury. As far as the allegations go, the suit is for property damage and the loss resulting therefrom. As the amount of damages claimed by the Home Insurance Company exceed two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest, we have no appellate jurisdiction. As to it, the case must be transferred to the Supreme Court.

It is therefore ordered that this case be transferred to the Supreme Court provided that appellant files the record in that court within sixty days of the finality of this decree.

The same comment could be made as to the claim of Ivan Carline. He claims $150.-00, the loss incurred on his motor vehicle, being the deductible portion of his policies with the Home Insurance Company, and $2,190.00 for the loss of the use of his vehicle while undergoing repairs from June 12, 1948 through October 20, 1948, or eight hours a day for one hundred thirty days, making a total of $2,340.00 — an amount over $2,000.00. However, he now concedes that his claim of $150.00 and that portion of his claim from June 20, 1948 to July 12, 1948, or twenty-two days, or $370.61, is prescribed, thus reducing his claim in this court to $1,819.39, an amount within our jurisdiction.

As to the plea of prescription, the learned judge of the District Court in his written reasons sustaining the plea has thoroughly covered this phase of the case and arrived at a correct conclusion, and we hereby adopt his reasons which are as follows:

“Plaintiff Carline concedes that his claim of $150 is prescribed and that his demand for the loss of the use of his truck between the date of the collision and July 12, 1948 is likewise prescribed. This latter admission is based on the fact that the plea of prescription prevents him from recovering the loss incurred more than one year prior to the filing of this suit. His suit was filed July 12, 1949, and hence he concedes that any damages suffered by him more than one year prior to that date is prescribed. There is no doubt of the correctness of this proposition.

[451]*451“The question presented, therefore, is whether or not his claim for the loss of the use of his truck from July 12 through October 20, 1948, is prescribed.

“In his attempt to defeat the plea of prescription he calls our attention to the provision of Articles 3536 and 3537 of the Louisiana Civil Code. Article 3536 establishes the prescription of one year on claims for damages resulting from offenses and quasi offenses. This is the article applicable here.

“He calls particular attention to the provision of Article 3537 which provides, ‘And in the other cases from that on which the injurious words, disturbance or damage were sustained.’ He argues that he sustained ‘damage’ continuously, and every day, between July 12 and October 20, 1948, and that therefore the prescription of one year did not begin to run until the day on which he suffered the damage. Plaintiff has presented very forceful argument in support of this contention, and it is possible that courts could place the interpretation he seeks of the quoted provisions of Article 3537 of our Civil Code. In one sense he is correct that each day through October 20, 1948 he suffered ‘damage’ for which he should be entitled to recover for a period of one year.

“It is unfortunate for him, however, that our courts have already had the opportunity of considering the same argument he presents but have placed a contrary construction upon the meaning of the quoted article.

“In the year 1903 in the case of Griffin v. Drainage Commission of New Orleans et ah, 110 La. 840, [34 So. 799] the Supreme Court had the opportunity of passing upon the identical question.

“In that case the plaintiff owned a building that had become damaged by excavations of the defendant. The excavations were conducted in the month of November, 1898 but the building did not at once reveal its total damage. The damage was progressive and continuous. On June 26, 1901 the plaintiff filed his suit and alleged the prior damage and that further damage was still in progress and continuing up to the filing of the suit, and would continue thereafter. In that case, as in the present, the plaintiff argued that it was not on the day of the digging of the trench that his building collapsed but it was every day since that it gradually deteriorated. He maintained, as plaintiff is maintaining here, that the law contained in the quoted Civil Code Article allowed him one year from the date of the damage in which to come before court to claim it.

“In answering that contention the Supreme Court said:

“ ‘Where a wrongful act gives rise to immediate damage, the law directs that an action for redress must be brought within a year of that date.

“ ‘That date is to be taken as the initial point for the one year’s prescription.’

“The contention is more clearly answered in the case of Luke v. Caddo Transfer & Warehouse Company, [11. La.App. 657] 124 So. 625, 626.

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52 So. 2d 449, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/home-ins-co-v-highway-ins-underwriters-lactapp-1951.