Lanier v. TL James & Company

148 So. 2d 100
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 9, 1962
Docket5664
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 148 So. 2d 100 (Lanier v. TL James & 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
Lanier v. TL James & Company, 148 So. 2d 100 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

148 So.2d 100 (1962)

Tyrus Cobb LANIER et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
T. L. JAMES & COMPANY Inc. and National Surety Corporation, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 5664.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 9, 1962.
Rehearing Denied December 14, 1962.

Seale, Hayes, Smith, Keogh & Franklin, by Joseph F. Keogh, Baton Rouge, for appellants.

*101 Durrett, Hardin, Hunter, Dameron & Fritchie, by Wallace A. Hunter, Baton Rouge, for appellees.

Before ELLIS, LOTTINGER, HERGET, LANDRY and REID, JJ.

ELLIS, Judge.

The defendant, T. L. James & Company Inc., and its insurer, National Surety Corporation, have appealed from a judgment of the district court which sustained an exception of no cause and no right of action and a plea of prescription of one year to their petition as third party plaintiffs against the Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish and his insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company.

On July 23, 1959, Tyrus Cobb Lanier, a deputy sheriff of the Parish of Tangipahoa, accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Jonnie Lanier as a guest passenger, in the course and scope of his employment was operating an automobile belonging to the Sheriff's Department of the Parish of Tangipahoa and was involved in an accident in the Parish of West Feliciana.

On July 22, 1960, Tyrus Cobb Lanier and his wife filed suit for damages for personal injuries, medical, hospital and doctor bills, future medical expenses, travel and other expenses for medical treatment, physical pain and mental anguish, and in the same suit the Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish sued for the deductible amount of its insurance in the sum of $100.00 and its insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, sued for the damage caused by the collision less the deductible amount of $100.00, which came to $590.33 that the insurer had paid.

Thereafter, on June 9, 1961 the defendants, T. L. James & Company, Inc., and its insurer, National Surety Corporation, filed a third party petition naming as third party defendant the Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish and his automobile liability insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The basis of the third party plaintiff's petition is that if the injuries to the guest passenger, Mrs. Jonnie Lanier, were proximately caused by the negligence of her co-plaintiff, Tyrus Cobb Lanier, in the operation of the automobile and he was acting as the agent, servant, and employee of Thomas I. Sanders, Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish and such negligence was "* * * directly imputed and attributed to the said Thomas I. Sanders, Sheriff of Tangipahoa, and the liability insurer of Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office * *" and therefore any injuries resulting to Mrs. Jonnie Lanier were due to the negligence of Tyrus Cobb Lanier, which was the proximate cause of the accident and the third party plaintiffs are entitled to have judgment over and against the third party defendants for any and all amounts of any judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, Mrs. Jonnie Lanier.

The Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish and his insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, to the third party petition filed an exception of no cause of action and no right of action or interest in the third party plaintiffs against the third party defendants or either of them, and also a plea of prescription of one year. The basis of these exceptions is set forth by the exceptors as follows:

"3. As shown by the record herein the accident out of which this litigation arises and out of which this third party action arises occurred on January 23, 1959, and before the amendment of the provisions of Article 2103 of the Louisiana Civil Code, effective January 1, 1961, and thus the rights of the said parties in this litigation were fixed as of the date of accident, July 23, 1959, at which time the law of the State of Louisiana was to the effect that there was no contribution between alleged joint tort-feasors.
"4. Movers show that the amendment to Article 2103 of the Louisiana Civil *102 Code, effective January 1, 1961, providing for contribution between tortfeasors was a change in the substantive law of the State of Louisiana and is not retroactive to any accident occurring prior to its effective date, January 1, 1961.
"5. Exceptors further base this peremptory exception on prescription of one year for all personal injury suits and claims for damages arising out of an alleged wrong; exceptors show that more than one year has elapsed since the date of this accident, July 23, 1959, and prior to the filing of this demand by the third party petition, June 9, 1961, and exceptors specifically plead that any such claim is barred by the applicable prescriptive period of one year."

The identical question presented to this court on the exception of no cause or no right of action was considered by our brethren of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Brown v. New Amsterdam Casualty Company, La.App., 136 So.2d 283, and by the Supreme Court of Louisiana as a result of its having granted a writ of certiorari. See Brown v. New Amsterdam Casualty Co., 243 La. 271, 142 So.2d 796. In the Brown case, the tort actions arose out of a collision which occurred on September 1, 1960 between an automobile driven by Joseph B. Brown, Sr., one of the plaintiffs, and the truck operated by Eugene Jones which was owned by his employer, Everett W. Manning, and was insured by the New Amsterdam Casualty Company. Passengers in the automobile at the time of the accident were Brown, his wife, his two minor children and a minor child of Joseph B. Brown Jr. Allegedly all of them received injuries as a result of the collision, those of Mrs. Brown ultimately causing her death. The suits were instituted subsequent to January 1, 1961 (February 13, 1961) by Brown Sr. and Brown Jr. against Manning, his insurer, the New Amsterdam Casualty Company, and others to recover damages for themselves and their minor children.

Manning and his insurer, after answering, filed third party petitions against Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, the automobile liability insurer of Joseph B. Brown Sr., alleging that the latter was a joint tort feasor and as such he and his insurer were liable for their proportionate share of whatever damages might be assessed.

To the third party petition, Hartford filed exceptions of no right and no cause of action, which were sustained by the District Court and such petitions dismissed, which resulted in an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeal by the third party plaintiffs (Defendant in the original action) from the dismissal of their third party demand.

Our brethren of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal, in considering the case, stated:

"The defendants' impleader by third-party demand of Hartford as an alleged joint tort feasor is founded upon Civil Code Article 2103, as amended by Act 30 of 1960, which pertinently provides: `A defendant who is sued on an obligation which, if it exists, is solidary may seek to enforce contribution, if he is cast, against his solidary co-debtor by making him a third party defendant in the suit, * * * whether or not the third party defendant was sued by the plaintiff initially * * *. The legislature specifically provided that the 1960 amendment was to become effective on January 1, 1961.
"Prior to the amendment of this Civil Code article by Act 30 of 1960, a tortfeasor could not, under the settled jurisprudence, enforce contribution from a joint tortfeasor unless and until both had been cast in solido by judgment secured against them by the injured party. See Kahn v.

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Bluebook (online)
148 So. 2d 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lanier-v-tl-james-company-lactapp-1962.