Hudson v. Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America

89 So. 2d 459, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 838
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 1956
DocketNo. 4244
StatusPublished

This text of 89 So. 2d 459 (Hudson v. Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America) 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
Hudson v. Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America, 89 So. 2d 459, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 838 (La. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

Plaintiff filed this suit for damages for personal injuries allegedly as the result of an accident on Feb. 8, 1954 which occurred while he was working for H. E. Wiese, Inc. when he was struck by a truck driven by defendant Ralph E. Clark and owned by his employer, also a defendant, Esso Standard Oil Company, and which was insured by the defendant Indemnity Insurance Company of North America.

Plaintiff alleges that as a result of the accident he sustained serious injuries to his back in the region of the left flank, great pain “up to on or about the latter part of August, 1954; and since such time to a lesser extent, and especially since then petitioner has suffered recurrent episodes of great pain in his back, though with some periods of lesser pain or relative comfort.”'

Plaintiff is also seeking lost wages from the date of the accident, Feb. 8, 1954, to on or about August 27, 1954, or a total of $1,-450. He is further seeking $25,000 for pain and disability “in the past and the certain partial disability in the future;” for pain and suffering he is asking the sum of $15,.-000, and an additional sum of $10,000: because of said injuries, also medical expenses to the date suit was filed of $250' and further medical expenses which it is alleged will exceed $2,500. Altogether, plaintiff is seeking $54,200 damages.

The case was duly tried and judgment originally rendered in favor of the plaintiff [460]*460for pain, suffering and partial disability in the amount of $7,500, and medical expenses in the sum of $326.65, as well as $1,450 for loss of wages less $225 which the plaintiff drew in unemployment securities. In addition, judgment was rendered in favor of the intervenor compensation insurer for $1,078.58 representing medical payments and workmens compensation paid to plaintiff by intervenor, plus an additional $150 for attorney fees for counsel for inter-venor.

Counsel for defendants filed a written motion for new trial, one of the grounds being an allegation that since the completion of the trial the plaintiff had been working practically continuously doing heavy, hard manual labor, and that his activities since the trial as shown by his work record thereafter were completely inconsistent with his claims that he could not do any heavy lifting or stay in a stooped or squatted position for any length of time, and inconsistent with his claim that when he attempted to lift heavy objects or stoop or squat for any length of time he suffered great pain. Defendants annexed to this motion four photographs showing the plaintiff digging what looks to be a ditch in connection with the construction of a building, and also annexed affidavits to substantiate the allegations of their motion.

A hearing was had and a new trial granted and additional evidence heard by the lower court after which the principal award originally decreed to the plaintiff in the sum of $9,051.65 was reduced to the sum of $5,301.65. The entire reduction was in the award of $7,500 for personal injuries to the plaintiff. The amount finally awarded 'for personal injuries to the plaintiff was $3,750, this being the only reduction in the original judgment.

Defendants have appealed from this judgment and counsel for plaintiff has answered the appeal asking for an increase in the award to the original amount prayed for, and has also filed a motion to remand the case to the District Court “for hearing of evidence on whether or not the physical condition of plaintiff-appellee has so developed since the trial below that a spinal fusion should now be carried out at the site of plaintiff-appellee’s said injury.” Defendants have filed opposition to the motion to remand and alternatively object for the reason that the evidence would be merely additional and cumulative to that already submitted which composes part of the record herein. Further, that the plaintiff-ap-pellee had been in the possession of the information which he now alleges should be offered in evidence in this cause since approximately February 7, 1956, and having filed answer to the appeal herein, it constitutes acquiescence in the record in the case as completed and plaintiff-appellee “is now estopped to move for a remand of the case * * * In view of the conclusion which we have reached in this case that plaintiff’s partial disability as the result of the accident had ceased subsequent to the rendition of the original judgment the motion to remand is hereby refused.

The first question presented on this appeal is the liability of the defendant Clark, which depends upon, first, whether he was negligent; second, whether plaintiff was contributorily negligent so as to bar his recovery and, third, even if plaintiff was con-tributorily negligent, the applicability of the doctrine of last clear chance.

This accident occurred within the confines of the plant of Esso Standard Oil, north of Baton Rouge, on an asphalt street designated as Fifteenth Street, which, according to the testimony and pictures was approximately eighteen to twenty feet wide, with a strip of ground between the asphalt and the adjoining buildings covered apparently in some places with shell, gravel or just dirt. This street, referred to by counsel for plaintiff as a passageway, either designation being immaterial to a decision in the case, runs east and west, and at about 1 o’clock on February 8, 1954, the plaintiff came from the north side of the street with a box of trash which he intended to place in a large trash bin which was sitting on the opposite side of the street within about two feet of the asphalt. Plaintiff crossed the street in a southeast[461]*461erly direction, and when he got within arms length of the trash bin, he threw the box of trash in this large bin. The truck came from the west, traveling toward the east in the south or right hand lane. The plaintiff was struck, according to the testimony, just as he started to turn to his left away from the bin, which would put him very close to the edge of the asphalt, or he was struck after he had turned and gotten about three feet away from the edge of the asphalt or had backed into the street two to four feet in order to turn and recross this street. The testimony on this point is rather long and involved and voluminous, but we believe that this is a fair summation of the place the plaintiff was in with reference to the edge of the asphalt street at the time he was struck according to the various witnesses.

The trial judge specifically commented upon the defendant Clark’s testimony and cited conflicts therein and finally concluded:

“Except as to the location as to where Hudson fell

Counsel for the defendant in his brief admits that Clark made a number of conflicting statements in his testimony and in his pre-trial depositions but states that they believe he was only confused and was not deliberately attempting to be uncooperative or evasive.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Finlay v. Standard Acc. Ins. Co.
19 So. 2d 302 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1944)
Cox v. Gross
47 So. 2d 102 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1950)
Silvera v. Gallardo
63 So. 2d 15 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)
Montgomery v. Louisiana Power & Light Co.
84 So. 2d 268 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 So. 2d 459, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 838, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hudson-v-indemnity-insurance-co-of-north-america-lactapp-1956.