Kipp v. Hurdle

307 So. 2d 125
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 11, 1975
Docket10052
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 307 So. 2d 125 (Kipp v. Hurdle) 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
Kipp v. Hurdle, 307 So. 2d 125 (La. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

307 So.2d 125 (1974)

Mrs. Mary KIPP
v.
Jimmy HURDLE and Mrs. Helen R. Hurdle.

No. 10052.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 16, 1974.
Rehearing Denied February 10, 1975.
Writ Refused April 11, 1975.

*126 Robert J. Vandaworker, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant La. Farm Bureau Ins. Co.

Samuel C. Cashio, Maringouin, for defendant-appellee.

Ralph W. Brewer, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before LOTTINGER and COVINGTON, JJ., and BAILES, J. Pro Tem.

*127 BAILES, Judge Pro Tem.

Plaintiff brought suit against Jimmy Hurdle, his wife, Mrs. Helen R. Hurdle and Mr. Hurdle's personal liability insurer, Louisiana Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (Insurer), to recover damages for injuries sustained by her when attacked by Mrs. Hurdle. The trial court awarded plaintiff damages in the amount of $6,357.50, which included special damages amounting to $857.50, against Mrs. Hurdle and the insurer, in solido. Mrs. Hurdle took a devolutive appeal, while the insurer perfected a suspensive appeal. Plaintiff has answered the appeal.

We reverse the judgment against the insurer, and affirm as to Mrs. Hurdle.

The facts giving rise to this litigation are simple, brief and without material dispute.

On Sunday afternoon, April 18, 1971, the plaintiff and a female friend, both in their fifties, were patrons of the Crocodile Inn in West Baton Rouge Parish. The time was between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. These two ladies were seated at the bar drinking a beer and enjoying the music of the dance band. During a brief cessation of music, Mr. Hurdle, a stranger to the plaintiff, asked her to dance with him. Plaintiff assented, and both made their way to the dance floor situated close to the entrance of the establishment.

The band began to play again as Hurdle and plaintiff reached the dance floor. At this time and while Mr. Hurdle had his back to the front door his wife entered the lounge in a rage and barefooted. She walked over to the rear of her husband, grabbed his arm, spun him around and slapped his face. Then she grabbed the plaintiff by the hair of the head and shoved her to the floor. The plaintiff hit the floor in a sitting position. While standing over the plaintiff, Mrs. Hurdle asked her if she had had enough and if she was having a good time. Upon comprehending the events which had just transpired, Mr. Hurdle took charge of his wife, removed her from the premises and escorted her home.

Mrs. Hurdle testified that she did not want her husband to go to the Crocodile Inn, nor did she want him dancing with any woman. Her behavior on this occasion convinces us of her avowed attitude. She freely admitted, while testifying, that she intended to do what she had done, that she intended to interrupt the dance, to separate her husband from his dance partner and to throw the plaintiff to the floor. However, she did deny that she intended to injure the plaintiff. Even so, it is presumed that she intended the consequences of her aggressive action.

Plaintiff was in immediate pain and emotional distress as a result of the unprovoked and unforewarned attack. She was administered to at the scene. About an hour later she had sufficiently regained her composure and calm to drive her automobile home.

Although Mrs. Hurdle denied that she was looking for her husband when she came upon his parked vehicle at the Crocodile Inn, her actions upon entering the lounge demonstrates the contrary. The evidence shows that Mr. Hurdle had been in Rosedale drinking and playing cards since that Sunday morning, that he had not gone home for dinner nor had his wife heard from him all day. We believe appellant entered the bar for the purpose of breaking up whatever activity she found her husband engaged in and of bringing him home. In the pursuit of this activity, she was neither the express nor implied agent of her husband.

In denying recovery against Mr. Hurdle, the trial court applied the general rule that a husband is not liable for the torts of his wife, unless the tortious conduct was in furtherance of a community mission, or was committed with the express or implied consent of the husband. This is the rule of law laid down and followed in Hart v. Hardgrave, 103 So.2d 910 (La. *128 App., 2nd Cir., 1958); Galle v. Ingraham, 140 So.2d 741 (La.App., 4th Cir., 1962); and Bradford v. Brown, 199 So.2d 414 (La.App., 1st Cir., 1967). We need not further consider this phase of the case, that is, the trial court's ruling that Mr. Hurdle was not liable or its judgment in favor of Mr. Hurdle for the reason that Mr. Hurdle did not appeal the judgment in his favor, and the plaintiff's answer to the appeal does not bring this issue before us.

In casting the insurer in judgment, the trial court stated:

"Insurance Coverage

"Louisiana Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company denies coverage by virtue of an exclusionary clause which provides that the policy does not apply to `bodily injury . . . which is either expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured.' Counsel for the insurance company has cited a number of cases applying this exclusionary clause, but they all deal with a situation in which the intentional tort is committed by the named insured.
"Plaintiff here contends that the exclusion applies only to intentional torts committed by the named insured, and therefore intentional torts committed by an omnibus insured are covered by the liability insurance provisions of the policy. (Mrs. Hurdle is an omnibus insured as the `spouse' of the named insured.) Plaintiff cites the cases of Barringer v. Employer's Mutual Liability Insurance Company, [La.App.,] 62 So.2d 173 and Rivers v. Brown, [La.App.,] 168 So.2d 400, interpreting a somewhat similar clause which excluded assault and battery `committed by or at the direction of the insured.' The courts held that the clause applied only to acts committed by or at the direction of the named insured. (1)
"The reason given in both the Barringer case and the Rivers case is that to hold the exclusionary clause applies to an omnibus insured would deprive the named insured of his insurance protection against vicarious liability for the wrongful acts of such omnibus insureds.
"Had we found Jimmy Hurdle vicariously liable for the tort of his spouse, the rule of those cases would unquestionably apply also to this case.
"In the Rivers case the insurance company was held liable.
"In the Barringer case cited above, the insurance company escaped liability because there was no coverage for torts committed by an omnibus insured beyond the scope and course of his employment. In the present case coverage is extended to the omnibus insured without reference to any vicarious liability on the part of the named insured. She is covered because she is the named insured's spouse, and the insurance company can escape liability only if the exclusionary clause is interpreted to apply to the omnibus insured as well as the named insured.
"The clause is susceptible of more than one interpretation. It is vague and indefinite and therefore must be construed against the insurer. Brasseaux v. Girouard, [La.App.,] 269 So.2d 590. The word `insured' in this clause must mean, as it did in the Barringer and Rivers cases, the named insured.

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307 So. 2d 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kipp-v-hurdle-lactapp-1975.