LaSalle v. Wilson Trailer Co.

787 So. 2d 1173, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 1731, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2001 WL 579779
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 30, 2001
DocketNo. 00-1731
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 787 So. 2d 1173 (LaSalle v. Wilson Trailer Co.) 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
LaSalle v. Wilson Trailer Co., 787 So. 2d 1173, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 1731, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2001 WL 579779 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

hAMY, Judge.

The plaintiffs filed suit seeking damages related to the death of their husband and father, following a work-related accident in which the decedent became trapped beneath rice draining from a grain trailer. The plaintiffs asserted that the trailer manufacturer was negligent in failing to label the trailer, warning users of suffocation hazards associated with its use. The trial court granted the defendant’s motion for involuntary dismissal. The plaintiffs appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

This products liability action arose due to a work-related accident suffered by Lenis LaSalle. At the time of the July 30, 1997 accident, Mr. LaSalle was employed by Herpin Trucking, Inc., a farming and trucking business of which Mr. Craig Her-pin was the president and chief executive officer. According to Mr. Herpin, he had employed Mr. LaSalle to perform odd jobs during the four-to-five weeks prior to the accident, but that he had only recently hired Mr. LaSalle as a truck driver for his business. In fact, Mr. Herpin stated that he was still training Mr. LaSalle as a driver.

The accident at issue occurred during the rice harvest and, according to Mr. Herpin, he and Mr. LaSalle had been occupied with the harvest for approximately seven days prior to the accident. During these workdays, Mr. Herpin’s grain trailer [1175]*1175would be filled with rice and driven to his father’s rice dryer and grain storage facility. The trailer, which contained both a front and a back hopper for the rice, would then be unloaded. This was done by opening a door at the bottom of each hopper. The rice would fall from the truck and through a grate, where an elevator would transport it into the grain bin. Mr. Her-pin testified that it took approximately fifteen to eighteen minutes to unload each of the hoppers and that, usually, they were able to complete two loads from the field to the storage facility each day.

li>On the day of the accident, Mr. Herpin drove the loaded truck from the field and was accompanied by Mr. LaSalle. According to Mr. Herpin, the two stepped from the truck and he proceeded to the switch to activate the elevator. Mr. LaSalle opened the hatch to the front hopper. The hopper took approximately fifteen to eighteen minutes to unload and then Mr. La-Salle, Mr. Herpin’s son, and his nephew entered the hopper to remove rice that remained in the corners. He stated this took approximately five minutes. Mr. Herpin then moved the truck so that the rear hopper was over the grate. He stated that, at this time, his nephew was on the middle partition of the trailer and his son was on the rear of the trailer. Mr. Herpin did not see Mr. LaSalle and believed that he was still in the front hopper. The hatch to the rear hopper was then opened. He explained that his son began trying to get his attention and was instructing him to turn off the elevator. Mr. Herpin stated that his son told him that Mr. LaSalle had fallen in the rice. He turned off the elevator, climbed on top of the trailer, and began attempting to remove Mr. LaSalle. However, Mr. LaSalle was covered in rice, was not breathing, and had no pulse when he was extracted some eight minutes later. Emergency personnel responded. Mr. Herpin sustained brain damage related to the loss of oxygen and eventually died in April 1998.

Rachel LaSalle, Mr. LaSalle’s wife, filed suit on her own behalf and on behalf of the couple’s minor children asserting a survival action and seeking damages for wrongful death. The petition named Wilson Trailer Co., Inc. and its insurance provider as defendants. The plaintiffs asserted that the trailer company manufactured lathe trailer in which Mr. LaSalle sustained injury and that it negligently failed to warn of the dangers of being in the trailer at the time it is unloaded and of suffocation.1

A bench trial was held on the matter in April 2000. At the close of the plaintiffs’ case, the defendant moved for an involuntary dismissal.2 It argued at that time that a user walking across the middle of the trailer during the unloading process, as it was argued Mr. LaSalle was doing, was not a reasonably anticipated use of the trailer and, therefore, no warning was required. The trial court granted the invol[1176]*1176untary dismissal concluding that Mr. Her-pin had actual knowledge of the danger of being on top of a load of grain during the unloading process and that Mr. LaSalle should have known of this danger. Applying the products liability statute to this finding, the trial court concluded that no duty to warn was owed.

The plaintiffs appeal, assigning the following as error in its brief to this court:

(1) The analysis of the Trial Judge was legally flawed under the provisions of R.S. 9:2800.54 and R.S. 9:2800.57 in that the actions of the user, even if arguably below standard, would constitute victim fault relevant only as comparative negligence and not a bar to recovery.
(2) The Court erroneously found, as a fact, that Lenis LaSalle should have known of the danger that confronted him (even though the Court conceded he obviously actually did not know of the danger),' and consequently, he was not entitled to a warning against the danger. This finding is manifestly wrong and totally unsupported by the record.
|4(3) The trailer was being used as anticipated by its manufacturer contrary to the belief by the Trial Court that it may have been misused.

Discussion

Although several assignments of error are designated, the plaintiffs essentially argue in brief that the trial court erred in determining that the “drowning” hazard posed by the grain trailer was open and obvious. The plaintiffs contend that although this drowning risk had been known in the agricultural community for some time, the facts do not support a finding that Mr. LaSalle “should have known” of the danger of walking into the loaded trailer and risking suffocation in the rice. The plaintiffs point to Mr. LaSalle’s brief experience in the rice field and some of Mr. Herpiris statements regarding whether he, himself, knew of the risk. According to their safety expert who testified at trial, a warning or labeling was required since the risk could not be removed. Further, the plaintiffs contend that the trial court’s focus on whether Mr. LaSalle should have known of the risk was an “unrelated issue” and that the trial court should have focused on whether the trailer was being misused, ie., the question of anticipated use.

The Louisiana Products Liability Act, La.R.S. 9:2800.51, et seq., provides the framework for the liability of manufacturers for the damage caused by their products. La.R.S. 9:2800.54(A) provides that “[t]he manufacturer of a product shall be liable to a claimant for damage proximately caused by a characteristic of the product that renders the product unreasonably dangerous when such damage arose from a reasonably anticipated use of the product by the claimant or another person or entity.” Relevant in this case is the statute’s additional provision that “[t]he product is | ..¡unreasonably dangerous because an adequate warning about the product has not been provided as provided in R.S. 9:2800.57[.]” La.R.S. 9:2800.54(B)(3).

“Adequate warning” is addressed by La. R.S. 9:2800.57, which reads:

A.

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Bluebook (online)
787 So. 2d 1173, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 1731, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2001 WL 579779, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lasalle-v-wilson-trailer-co-lactapp-2001.