Larsen v. Brenan

54 So. 2d 337, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 827
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 15, 1951
DocketNo. 19715
StatusPublished

This text of 54 So. 2d 337 (Larsen v. Brenan) 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
Larsen v. Brenan, 54 So. 2d 337, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 827 (La. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

REGAN, Judge.

Plaintiff, William E. Larsen, instituted this suit on behalf of his minor son, Pen-de'lton Larsen, aged fifteen, the operator of a motorbicycle, against defendant, Thomas E. Brenan, the owner and operator of a 1939 Mercury automobile, endeavoring to recover the sum of $12,000 for personal injuries sustained by Pendelton Larsen, as a result of a collision in the intersection of St. Claude Avenue and Alvar Street in the City of New Orleans, on June 10th, 1949, at about 7:30 a. m.

Defendant filed exceptions of no right or cause of action, vagueness and indefmiteness and further excepted to the jurisdiction of the court ratione personas.

The Board of Administrators of the Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans intervened claiming the sum of $630.-50 for professional services rendered to the plaintiff’s son in consequence of this accident.

The judge, a quo, maintained the exception of vagueness and permitted plaintiff to amend. Defendant then answered and, in effect, admitted his own negligence but pleaded the contributory negligence of Pen-delton Larsen.

The trial court rendered judgment in favor of the defendant dismissing plaintiff’s suit predicated upon the finding that young Larsen was guilty of contributory negligence, in that he failed to decrease his speed and look to his left before entering and proceeding into St. Claude Avenue from Alvar Street. Plaintiff has appealed.

The record reveals that on June 10th, 1949, at approximately 7:30 a. m., plaintiff’s minor son, Pendelton Larsen, was riding a motorbicycle in Alvar Street in the direction of the river, when he was struck and seriously injured by defendant’s automobile, which was being driven in St. Claude Avenue in the direction of Canal Street.

A building existed on the corner to Larsen’s left which obstructed his vision in St. Claude and which placed that corner in the category of what is colloquially designated as a “blind corner.” At the moment of the accident there was also a New Orleans Public Service omnibus temporarily stopped on the corner, which additionally obstructed Larsen’s vision to his left.

The traffic semaphore signal light was in Larsen’s favor and, at least one automobile had preceded him into St. Claude Avenue from .Alvar Street before he entered the intersection and endeavored to traverse St. Claude Avenue at a speed of between fifteen and twenty miles per hour.

Larsen had reached the left traffic lane of St. Claude Avenue when his bicycle was struck by defendant’s automobile, which had proceeded into the intersection against an unfavorable or red semaphore signal light at a speed of about thirty-six miles per hour, although defendant disputes this estimate of his speed and contends that he was driving about twenty or twenty-five miles per hour.

John A. Lopez, brake inspector for the New Orleans Police Department, who, defendant’s attorney admitted was an “expert”, testified that he arrived at the scene of the accident twenty minutes after its occurrence and based upon the “skid marks” impressed in the roadway by defendant’s car, he calculated its speed at thirty-six miles per hour. St. Claude Avenue at Alvar Street is a thirty mile speed zone.

Apparently neither operator saw the other until shortly before the moment of impact due to the blind corner and the parked bus which, as observed heretofore, obstructed the vision of both plaintiff’s son and the defendant.

Defendant maintains that (a) plaintiff was “negligent by the very act of permitting his minor son, over the age of fourteen, to drive a powercycle without a license”; (b) that Larsen was “guilty of negligence per se * * * ¡n passing a vehicle on the left on a two-way street and entering an intersection with a thoroughfare frequented by heavy traffic, as is St. Claude [339]*339Avenue”; (c) “a motorist cannot dash recklessly into obvious danger relying on the right of way, without exercising at least some slight degree of care”; (d) “where there exists exceptional circumstances, there is further reason for the driver approaching the intersection favored with a green light to exercise some degree of caution”; and (e) “where between the time in which a traffic signal light becomes favorable to a motorist, whose view is blocked by a street car or a bus, and the time at which he enters the intersection, sufficient time has not elapsed for complete clearing of the intersection, he is not justified in assuming there is no other vehicle in the intersection.”

Plaintiff, in opposition thereto, contends that “in view of the fact that young Larsen’s vision was totally blocked by the building and the bus to his left, even had he looked in that direction, he still would not have seen the approach of defendant’s car, and could have taken no action to have avoided the collision. A person is charged only with seeing what he could or should have seen. It was impossible for Larsen to have seen the defendant’s approaching automobile and hence, whether or not he looked to his left is immaterial in determining whether or not he was at fault.”

The record unequivocally substan-. tiates the conclusion that the defendant was guilty of negligence in entering the intersection on an unfavorable or red light, therefore, the only question posed for our consideration by virtue of the foregoing facts, is whether young Larsen was guilty of contributory negligence in failing to look to his left and slacken his speed before entering the intersection of St. Claude Avenue and Alvar Street.

Briefly reviewing the actions and conduct of young Larsen at the time of this accident, the record reflects that he was operating his motorbicycle in Alvar Street at a speed of from fifteen to twenty miles per hour and entered the intersection at a time when the semaphore traffic signal light had, for at least several seconds, reflected a green or favorable light, and this is substantiated by the evidence in the record to the effect that at least one automobile had already preceded him into the intersection and was in the process of making a right turn in the direction of Canal Street at the moment that the accident occurred. While it is true that Larsen’s view from Alvar Street into St. Claude Avenue, which was to his left, was obstructed by both a building and a parked omnibus, still the intersection was and had been for several seconds clear of any traffic. If the defendant, who was operating his automobile in St. Claude Avenue in the direction of Canal Street, had obeyed the unfavorable semaphore signal the accident would not have occurred.

It is not incumbent upon a motorist, in the position in which Larsen found him- . self, to stop his vehicle and to peer cautiously around an obstruction to ascertain whether or not motorists proceeding in St. Claude Avenue would obey unfavorable traffic signals. This view has consistently been substantiated by this Court and the Supreme Court.

In the case of Lewis v. Groetsch, La.App., 32 So.2d 396, 399, which in our opinion, is apposite and controlling, the plaintiff’s vehicle was struck by the defendants’ truck as plaintiff attempted to cross the intersection of Louisiana and St. Charles Avenues. There was a semaphore signal light in plaintiff’s favor, but his view into Louisiana Avenue was obstructed by a stationary trolley car. Defendants pleaded the contributory negligence of plaintiff in that the plaintiff failed to keep a proper lookout and blindly entered the intersection while his vision was thus obscured.

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Bluebook (online)
54 So. 2d 337, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/larsen-v-brenan-lactapp-1951.