Kinchen v. Traders & General Insurance

198 So. 2d 114, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5384
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 17, 1967
DocketNo. 7068
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 198 So. 2d 114 (Kinchen v. Traders & General Insurance) 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
Kinchen v. Traders & General Insurance, 198 So. 2d 114, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5384 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

BAILES, Judge.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the trial court sustaining a motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff, Edward M. Hin-chen, filed this action in which Traders & General Insurance Company (Traders & General) and Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company (L & A) were made defendants, together with others. Traders & General then filed third party pleadings making L & A a defendant, along with others. L & A filed a motion for summary judgment [116]*116seeking the dismissal of both the plaintiff’s demands and the third party plaintiff’s demands against it. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment dismissing L & A as a party defendant in both actions.

By amended pleadings, the plaintiff named Texas & Pacific Railway Company (T & P) a party defendant in the main demand, and Traders & General also, by amended pleadings, made T & P a third party defendant in its third party action. T & P filed an exception of no cause of action to the plaintiff’s petition and to Traders & General’s third party petition. The trial court sustained the exception of no cause of action filed by T & P and dismissed the actions against it.

Only Traders & General has appealed from the judgments of the trial court.

This litigation arises out of an automobile accident which occurred about two miles north of New Roads, Pointe Coupee Parish, on Louisiana Highway No. 1 on the evening of December 1, 1964. Involved in the accident were two vehicles, one driven by plaintiff and the other driven by Harry H. Lackey, Jr., deceased, who at the time of the accident, was an employee of defendant, Traders & General. According to the plaintiff’s petition, as the Kinchen and Lackey vehicles were approaching each other, the Lackey automobile crossed' the centerline of the highway. In spite of Kinchen’s evasive action, the Lackey automobile struck the Kinchen vehicle.

In the vicinity of the accident, Louisiana Highway No. 1 runs generally north and south, and on either side sugar cane fields are located. Both to the north and to the south there are numerous small privately owned dirt roads that lead from the fields to the highway. Located near the scene of the accident on the west side of the highway is a cane loading facility. Also on the west side of the highway, the railroad tracks are located from one hundred to two hundred feet away and parallel to the highway. Near this cane loading facility is a spur track owned and used exclusively by T & P. The railroad tracks are owned by T & P, and L & A is permitted to use the mainline track jointly with T & P under a private agreement between the two companies.

As stated, supra, the motion for summary judgment filed by L & A was directed against both the petition of plaintiff and the third party petition of Traders & General. At this time we will consider the merits of the motion for summary judgment.

The plaintiff, in the main demand, and the third party plaintiff, Traders & General, made practically identical allegations of negligence on the part of L & A as the basis for a cause of action. In substance these allegations are: That the accident was caused by the negligence of L & A in placing, dumping or dropping dirt, mud, sugar cane stalks and other debris on Louisiana Highway No. 1 at the place where the accident occurred; that L & A was also guilty of negligence proximately causing and contributing to the accident in that it owned and maintained a right of way and railroad tracks in said right of way a short distance from Louisiana Highway No. 1 at or near the place of the accident; that said tracks and right of way were approximately parallel to Louisiana Highway No. 1, and also owned and maintained a road crossing across the right of way and tracks over which trucks traveled to haul cane; that L & A negligently maintained said right of way and said tracks and negligently allowed and permitted cane trucks loaded with cane to traverse said right of way and to enter the public highway where said L & A knew or should have known the passage of cane trucks would and did create a very dangerous and hazardous condition for vehicular traffic on said highway; that L & A was negligent in arranging for rolling stock owned and operated by it along its track to be loaded with cane at the time, on or immediately prior to the date of the accident, which, to the knowledge of L & A that vehicles transporting said cane would necessarily pass along the public highway [117]*117on Louisiana Highway No. 1 at or near where the accident occurred and would and did cause the deposit of mud, dirt, cane stalks and debris on and along the public highway, thus making same dangerously hazardous to vehicular traffic which condition caused or contributed to said accident; that L & A was negligent in that it knew or should have known that said highway was caused to be dangerously slippery when wet, and it was negligent in not properly signing the road to warn motorists traveling thereon of such condition; that it was negligent in failing to remove the mud, dirt, sugar cane stalks and other debris from the highway, and that L & A was otherwise negligent and careless in causing the accident. Appellant further contends and alleges that L & A negligently permitted potholes and ruts to exist at the crossing of the mainline tracks, thus creating a rough crossing. In the crossing of the cane trucks over such crossing, the loads of sugar cane thereon would be jostled, shakened and made unstable, thereby creating the likelihood of cane and other debris falling from the trucks and being deposited on the said highway.

In support of its motion for summary judgment, L & A filed affidavits of its claim representative, vice president, superintendent and division engineer. No counter affidavit was filed by appellant or the plaintiff. By these affidavits, L & A proved that it did not own the railroad tracks, did not own or operate the spur track nor any rolling equipment, did not service freight in this area, did not pickup or deliver any rolling equipment on the spur track, that it operated, supervised and maintained no loading hoists, that it has never had any ownership or control whatever over the use or maintenance of any of the private roads in the area, and that it had no right to advise, require or even to protest any usage of said roads, including the spillage of dirt, mud, sugar cane stalks or other debris, and that it had no control over the use of cane carts or the loading of freight cars.

Appellant concedes that in the absence of counter affidavits, the affidavits filed by L & A negate some of the contentions of appellant. The most serious argument of appellant, the basis of which it contends was not negated by the affidavits of L & A, is that of the obligation of L & A to maintain the mainline crossings. It argues that under the decision of the Supreme Court in Dixie Drive It Yourself System v. American Beverage Company (1962) 242 La. 471, 137 So.2d 298, which held that the violation by the defendant of a provision of the Highway Regulatory Act was negligence per se, this negligence is actionable if it was a legal cause of the collision, and it is clear that more than one legally responsible cause can, and frequently does, contribute to a vehicular collision.

By analogy to the Dixie Drive It Yourself System case, appellant argues that inasmuch as it was L & A’s obligation to maintain the mainline crossings, and whereas L & A permitted ruts and potholes to exist in the crossing, it violated LSA-R.S.

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Related

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223 So. 2d 458 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1969)
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Bluebook (online)
198 So. 2d 114, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kinchen-v-traders-general-insurance-lactapp-1967.