Hurst v. Hardware Mutual Casualty Company

234 So. 2d 802
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 13, 1970
Docket7894, 7895
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 234 So. 2d 802 (Hurst v. Hardware Mutual Casualty Company) 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
Hurst v. Hardware Mutual Casualty Company, 234 So. 2d 802 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

234 So.2d 802 (1970)

Jules Toby HURST, Ind., etc.
v.
HARDWARE MUTUAL CASUALTY COMPANY et al.
A. P. CUNNINGHAM, Ind., etc.
v.
HARDWARE MUTUAL CASUALTY COMPANY et al.

Nos. 7894, 7895.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

April 13, 1970.
Rehearing Denied May 25, 1970.

*803 Smith & Gaudin, by E. Clark Gaudin, and John V. Parker, Baton Rouge, for appellants.

Frank M. Coates, Jr., Horace C. Lane, John S. White, Jr., and Roger M. Fritchie, Baton Rouge, for appellees.

Before LOTTINGER, BLANCHE and PICKETT, JJ.

BLANCHE, Judge.

These consolidated suits were tried for four days before a jury and at the conclusion thereof the jury dismissed plaintiffs' suit at plaintiff's costs in each matter. Plaintiffs have appealed complaining that errors by both the judge and the jury were of such a nature as to require that we either remand the case for trial or reverse the judgment of the trial court and award a money judgment in their favor. The suits are for personal injuries and damages resulting from the collision of an automobile driven by Charles Robert Ware with an asphalt spreader machine on U. S. Highway I-10. Injured in the accident were Mary M. "Mickey" Cunningham, then the nineteen year old daughter of plaintiff, A. P. Cunningham, and Fillmore Jay Hurst, then the nineteen year old son of plaintiff, Jules Toby Hurst. The damages sustained by Hurst were stipulated to be the sum of $3,500. Mickey Cunningham and Fillmore *804 Hurst were passengers in the automobile operated by Charles Robert Ware, a nineteen year old emancipated minor and the son of Owen W. Ware. The accident occurred during the early morning hours of December 21, 1966, on Interstate Highway I-10 in East Baton Rouge Parish on that section of the highway between College Drive and Airline Highway when the automobile in which they were riding came out of a fog patch and crashed into an asphalt spreader machine which had been left on the highway by Cenla Asphalt Corporation. At the time of the accident the interstate highway at that point was not officially open to traffic, and while most of the work was completed, the highway was still under construction by the principal contractor, Foster and Creighton Company, and its subcontractor, Cenla Asphalt Corporation.

The plaintiffs-appellants in one suit (Appeal Docket No. 7895) are A. P. Cunningham and his daughter Mary M. "Mickey" Cunningham, who has become of age and was appropriately made a party plaintiff since suit was filed. The plaintiff-appellant in the other suit (Appeal Docket No. 7894) is Jules Toby Hurst, individually and on behalf of his minor son Fillmore Jay Hurst.

The defendants-appellees in the Cunningham suit are enumerated and described as follows:

(1) Foster and Creighton, the prime contractor in charge of constructing U. S. Highway I-10 at the point where the accident occurred;

(2) The Travelers Insurance Company, the liability insurer of Foster and Creighton;

(3) Cenla Asphalt Corporation, a subcontractor in charge of blacktopping the shoulder of the road at the point where the accident occurred and the owner of the asphalt spreader machine involved in the accident;

(4) Employers Liability Assurance Corporation, Ltd., the liability insurer of Cenla;

(5) Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, the alleged liability insurer of Charles Robert Ware.

Charles Robert Ware was initially a defendant but plaintiffs, prior to trial, dismissed their suit against him as of nonsuit. Hardware Mutual Casualty Company, another alleged liability insurer of Charles Robert Ware, was also made a defendant, but after trial Hardware settled with the Cunninghams and obtained a release for it and for Charles Robert Ware. The Cunninghams have, therefore, appealed the judgment of the trial court dismissing their suit as to all defendants except Hardware.

The defendants-appellees in the Hurst suit are the same as in the Cunningham suit with the addition of Hardware. As stated above, Hardware settled with the Cunninghams but did not settle with Hurst.

Cenla and Employers have filed a third party demand against Aetna on this appeal and especially appeal the jury's having found no coverage by Hardware and Aetna. They also filed the same third party demand and appeal against Hardware which we previously dismissed.[1]

*805 Before considering special errors alleged on appeal as having been committed by the trial judge, we will first view the case with regard to appellants' contention that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence and should be reversed by us and judgment awarded in favor of the plaintiffs.

The record established beyond any doubt the negligence of Charles Robert Ware. He had proceeded on a new highway which was under construction and which had never been opened to traffic. To get on the highway, it was necessary for young Ware to drive around a barricade and two reflectorized signs, one warning "Road Closed" and the other "Do Not Enter." The jury evidently rejected the notion that the signs or barricades were not in place on the night of the accident. There was further evidence that Ware had been drinking on that particular night and was driving his car on a foggy highway at an excessive speed under the circumstances.

We will next consider together whether Foster and Creighton, the general contractor, and Cenla, its subcontractor, were guilty of any negligence proximately causing the accident. This determination cannot be made without first determining what duty if any was owed to the plaintiffs.

We conclude from a review of the evidence that the signs and barricades were in place at the time of the accident and those using the highway had to completely disregard their warning that the road was withdrawn from public use. The barricade extended across the paved section of the highway and the signs gave notice that the road was closed and traffic was warned "Do Not Enter." In order to gain access to the highway, it was necessary for those using the same to drive around the barricades and signs by partially using the shoulder of the road. Sergeant Martin Fritcher of the Louisiana State Police described the barricade as across the paved section of the interstate and further testified that he had to drive on the grassy section of the highway to get around it. Mr. Humberto Gutierrez, a Highway Department employee, saw the barricades and signs in place in the late evening of the day of the accident and at approximately seven o'clock on the morning following the accident. We believe that the jury had ample evidence to conclude that the signs and barricades were adequate to inform the public that the road was closed and withdrawn from public use. The conclusion, therefore, follows that plaintiffs' presence on the road on the night of the accident was in disregard of a barricade and adequate warnings and that they were in fact trespassers.

The duty owed by defendants under the foregoing circumstances is described in Blashfield Automobile Law and Practice, 3d ed., Sec. 163.10 under the title "Road Not Open to Traffic" as follows:

"* * * even though a motorist using a road not open to traffic is a trespasser, he is nonetheless entitled to protection from willful or wanton injury or gross negligence. * * *"

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Bluebook (online)
234 So. 2d 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hurst-v-hardware-mutual-casualty-company-lactapp-1970.