Hoy v. Gilbert

714 So. 2d 74, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1202, 1998 WL 237156
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 13, 1998
DocketNo. 30255-WCA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 714 So. 2d 74 (Hoy v. Gilbert) 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
Hoy v. Gilbert, 714 So. 2d 74, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1202, 1998 WL 237156 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

h MARVIN, Chief Judge.

This appeal was referred to a five-judge re-argument panel under LSA-Constn. Art. 5, § 8(B), when one judge of the three-judge panel dissented to a reversal of the WCO’s rejection of the claimant’s demands in a worker’s compensation action.

On re-argument, and accepting the WCO’s assigning no credibility to claimant, we find that the probably inebriated claimant was a passenger in the truck of his supervisor who had begun driving on a mission for the employer before the temporarily disabling accident occurred. In such circumstances, the accident arose out of the claimant’s employment and claimant was in the course and scope of his employment. The deviation, if any, by the supervisor-driver is not attributable to claimant. See Malone-Johnson, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Workers’ Compensation, §§ 170, 174, and cases cited therein, e.g., Jagneaux v. Marquette Casualty Co., 135 So.2d 794 (La.App. 3d Cir.1961).

We reverse and remand to the WCO for a judgment to be rendered for claimant.

FÁCTS

The claimant, Robert Hoy, worked in 1996 as an apprentice helper to a bricklayer for the defendant employer, Slade Gilbert, a masonry contractor whose residence and “shop” were in Rocky Branch, a community in Union Parish north of West Monroe. During the time surrounding the late Saturday afternoon accident [April 13, 1996], Hoy’s bricklayer-supervisor was Lonnie Brown who drove Hoy and another laborer, Jimmy Howard, to and from a job site near Montieello, Arkansas. The employer, Gilbert, paid for the gasoline used by the supervisor, Brown, in Brown’s truck to go to and from the Montieello job site.

After stopping at a convenience store returning to Rocky Branch from Montieello and buying beer, Brown drove Hoy and Howard to Gilbert’s shop in 12Rocky Branch. Hoy may have had his own beer in the truck. During the drive Hoy and Brown drank beer, according to Howard. The employer, Gilbert, who was subpoenaed by his counsel, did not testify. His deposition, however, was placed in the record by defendant as a proffer, being Defendant’s Exhibit D-5.

Gilbert said he paid for the gasoline Brown would put in his truck each day to drive himself and Gilbert’s other employees to and from their homes and Montieello. Before dropping off Hoy and Howard at their homes on the afternoon of the accident, Brown and his passengers stopped in Rocky Branch where Gilbert and Brown talked [apparently about the Montieello job] for an estimated 30 minutes at Gilbert’s shop. Gilbert instructed Brown where to take one of his utility trailer tires in West Monroe to be repaired, saying that he [Gilbert] would later recover it. Gilbert said he did this after Brown volunteered to take the tire to the repair destination site [an Exxon service station] and said to Gilbert that he would be going that way. According to Gilbert, the station was on the corner of Cypress [U.S. Hwy. 80] and North 7th streets near the West Monroe courthouse and city hall. Some confusion among the witnesses exists in the record because of the fact that Gilbert used the services of two Exxon stations that are about three miles apart on Hwy. 80 and near the West Monroe city hall. After Gilbert and Brown conversed about the tire, it was put in the bed of Brown’s pickup for delivery to the repair destination.

Mrs. Gilbert testified Brown and his men arrived at the shop, estimating the time to have been about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. and remained there for an estimated 20 or 30 minutes. Mrs. Gilbert said she did not hear the conversation between Brown and Gilbert but thought that her husband would have told Brown to take the tire to the Exxon station near the courthouse, a trip which she estimated would take about 15 minutes. She said she did not believe her husband drank a beer with Brown at lathe shop before Brown left with the tire. Gilbert, however, said Brown, who was drinking a beer when he arrived at the shop, “offered me one and I took one.” Gilbert said he saw only Brown and not Hoy or Howard drinking a beer at the shop. Gilbert said that he and Brown did not specifically discuss where Brown was going after Brown took the tire to its repair destination.

[76]*76Before Brown reached the tire-repair destination, the accident occurred on the Wall-Williams Road north of and between the two Exxon stations. Brown failed to negotiate a curve and lost control of his truck. Howard, on the back seat, testified that he heard Brown and Hoy, on the front seats, discussing a “short-cut” to the Exxon station as Brown drove toward West Monroe from Gilbert’s shop. Howard said he was half asleep on the back seat and did not know how the accident occurred.

Brown’s truck struck a culvert and turned over twice, causing a broken nose, facial and other injuries to Hoy, who fortunately was wearing a seat belt. Cross-examination of Hoy suggested that his blood taken at a hospital shortly after the accident was later determined to be .2 grams percent alcohol. Hoy left the hospital after X-rays were taken but returned the next day.

Hoy testified that Brown was attempting to avoid a dog when he lost control of the truck. Gilbert said that on Friday April 12, he had heard Howard mention the need to move his belongings to another residence and agreed that Brown and Hoy could assist Howard in the move when they were through with work. Howard lived several miles south of the tire-repair destination which was south of Gilbert’s shop.

Scott DeBoard, who had been sometimes employed by Gilbert as a mortar mixer, drove to the West Monroe hospital after being notified of the accident to transport Howard and Hoy home on that Saturday night. DeBoard testified that | .¡while driving them from the hospital, Howard and Hoy told him that the accident happened when Brown began chasing at a high speed someone who owed Brown money and that Brown ignored repeated protests and requests by Hoy and Howard to “slow down” before the accident occurred. On cross-examination, Hoy denied that the truck exceeded the 35-mph speed limit. Brown did not testify.

Detective Terrell of the West Monroe police department, who saw Brown’s truck go out of control and the resulting accident, testified about what he saw and did during and after the accident. Terrell said that he had not seen either a dog or another vehicle which might have been involved. Terrell estimated the truck was going about 50 mph in a 35-mph zone when it went out of control. Terrell noted the time of the accident as 6:26 p.m. The other witnesses did not note, but estimated the time or times of events at Gilbert’s shop before the accident when Brown, Hoy and Howard were there.

After Hoy left the hospital on Saturday night, Gilbert drove to Howard’s home where he found Brown and Hoy with Howard. Gilbert described Hoy as then being “drunk off his butt” and distinguished Howard’s home as “the place where he was moving from ” rather than where Howard mentioned on Friday to Gilbert as the place where Howard intended to move. Our emphasis. Gilbert declined to suggest that Brown showed signs of intoxication when he saw and talked to him on Saturday either before or after the accident.

Gilbert said he saw Brown and Hoy the night after the accident when they were again in the hospital where they told him that a dog ran out in front of Brown’s truck, causing the accident. Gilbert said that Howard told him they were “chasing somebody and ... driving too fast.” Gilbert said that Scott DeBoard had told him the same thing as Howard.

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Related

Gomez v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.
745 So. 2d 104 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1999)
Hoy v. Gilbert
754 So. 2d 207 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
714 So. 2d 74, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1202, 1998 WL 237156, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoy-v-gilbert-lactapp-1998.