Manuel v. Luckett

577 So. 2d 203, 1991 WL 35077
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 5, 1991
DocketCW/90/0472
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 577 So. 2d 203 (Manuel v. Luckett) 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
Manuel v. Luckett, 577 So. 2d 203, 1991 WL 35077 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

577 So.2d 203 (1991)

John M. MANUEL and Patricia A. Manuel
v.
Daniel D. LUCKETT, et al.

No. CW/90/0472.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

March 5, 1991.
Writ Denied May 17, 1991.

*204 Victor L. Marcello, Donaldsonville, for John Manuel.

Dana K. Larpenteur, Plaquemine, for Freddie Pitre and Daniel D. Luckett.

Kenneth L. Riley, Metairie, for Iberville Parish Police Jury.

Richard S. Thomas, Baton Rouge, for State Farm.

Gerald Jeffers, Baton Rouge, for the State.

Walter Thompson, Jr., New Orleans, for Walbrook Ins. Co.

Before COVINGTON, C.J., and SAVOIE and CRAIN, JJ.

*205 SAVOIE, Judge.

This is a tort suit brought by plaintiff, John Manuel,[1] to recover personal injury and property damages allegedly sustained due to an accident on March 11, 1988. The vehicle plaintiff was driving was struck by a vehicle driven by Iberville Parish Deputy Sheriff Daniel D. Luckett. Deputy Luckett was responding to a radio call he had received from Deputy Essie Stevens. Plaintiff filed suit against Deputy Luckett, Deputy Stevens, Iberville Parish Sheriff Freddie H. Pitre, Sr., Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (the Sheriff's automobile liability insurer), and Walbrook Insurance Company, Ltd. (the excess insurer for Sheriff Pitre), among others.[2] Plaintiff thereafter settled with the Sheriff's automobile liability insurer.

Walbrook filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that the language of its excess policy incorporated language from the primary/underlying policy and that this language excluded coverage for claims arising out of the use of an automobile, therefore barring the plaintiff's claim against Walbrook.[3] In his petitions, plaintiff alleged that Sheriff Pitre's negligent training of Deputy Luckett, and Deputy Stevens' negligent handling of the radio call to Deputy Luckett, caused or contributed to the automobile accident in which plaintiff was injured. The trial judge denied the motion for summary judgment without assigning written or oral reasons for judgment. Walbrook applied for a supervisory writ of certiorari, which this court denied. Walbrook then filed a writ application with the supreme court, which granted the writ and ordered the matter remanded to this court for briefing and an opinion. 566 So.2d 967.

The issue before this court is whether the trial court erred in denying Walbrook's motion for summary judgment and in failing to find that the automobile use exclusion applied.

Walbrook initially moved for a summary judgment with a Joint Stipulation, wherein Walbrook stated that it had issued to participants of the Louisiana Sheriff's Risk Management Program an Excess Law Enforcement Liability Insurance Policy; that the Sheriff's Risk Management Program provided primary coverage and that Walbrook provided excess coverage; that the excess policy incorporated the exclusions of coverage of the primary policy;[4] and that the underlying policy excluded coverage as follows:

4. Exclusions.

(A) The Agreement, and the assets of the Fund, shall not be used and shall not apply to the following:
* * * * * *
(ii) To any bodily injury, personal injury, and property damage arising out of *206 the ownership, maintenance, operation, use, loading or unloading of (a) any automobile, water craft over 35 feet in length, or aircraft owned or operated by or rented or loaned to any Insured or (b) any other automobile, water craft over 35 feet in length, or aircraft operated by any person in the course of his employment by any insured; ...

Because Walbrook accepted the allegations of the plaintiff's petition as true, we will now review those allegations. According to the plaintiff's petition, Manuel was driving on Louisiana Highway 74 in an easterly direction when he was struck broadside by a car driven by Deputy Luckett and owned by Sheriff Pitre. Plaintiff alleged that Deputy Luckett went through a red traffic control light. Plaintiff alleged that Deputy Luckett, who was acting within the course and scope of his employment, was negligent in failing to see what he should have seen, in failing to exercise reasonable and proper care in warning other motorists, in failing to yield the right of way, in improperly passing at an intersection, in illegally proceeding through a red traffic control signal, and in speeding.

Furthermore, according to plaintiff's petition, Sheriff Pitre failed to properly train Deputy Luckett as to proper police emergency procedures. At the time of the accident, Deputy Luckett was responding to a Code 3 call, but he failed to use his siren and barlight as required, allegedly due to his improper training. Plaintiff alleged that "Deputy Luckett's approach to the subject intersection at an unreasonable rate of speed, and his failure to reduce his speed ... and proceed across the intersection with caution" were due to negligent training. Plaintiff also alleged that the sheriff was negligent in failing to have an experienced deputy ride with Deputy Luckett to instruct and supervise Deputy Luckett's work.

As to Deputy Stevens, the dispatcher, plaintiff alleged that she was negligent in failing to properly code the call. Plaintiff alleged that the call was really a code 1 call, rather than a code 3 call, which did not require "the high speed and dangerous driving engaged in by" Deputy Luckett. According to plaintiff's petition, the sheriff was negligent in his failure to properly train Deputy Stevens and his failure to set up procedures for the reception of incoming calls and the transfer of the information to deputies on the road.

The plaintiff filed a memorandum in opposition to the motion for summary judgment wherein he stated that Walbrook's motion only presented legal issues since Walbrook was accepting all the allegations in the plaintiff's petition as true for purposes of the motion. He then stated that out of an abundance of caution, in opposition to the motion, he filed all depositions which had been taken which were not already of record. The plaintiff stated that he also relied on depositions already in the record. Attached to the plaintiff's memorandum was the affidavit of Larry Gould, wherein he stated that the coding system had a use beyond conveying information on how to use an automobile, such as information as to the call's seriousness, its priority, the assistance or equipment necessary to respond to the call, as well as whether the call is an emergency and whether the deputy must proceed with caution. Gould further stated that deputies "frequently receive coded calls and respond to them without the use of an automobile."

After Walbrook filed its writ application, the plaintiff and defendants Luckett, Pitre, and State Farm filed a "Joint Concurrence in Request for Issuance of Writs" wherein they urged this court to rule on the merits of the writ application while opposing it on the merits. The plaintiff also filed a request for admissions. In the request, the plaintiff wanted the defendants to admit that the managers of the Louisiana Sheriff's Risk Management Program determined that the automobile exclusion was not applicable to this case, that the attached policies were true copies of the Sheriff's Association Plan Document and of the Walbrook policy, and that the managers of the Louisiana Sheriff's Risk Management Program had the right to determine if the automobile exclusion was applicable.

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577 So. 2d 203, 1991 WL 35077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manuel-v-luckett-lactapp-1991.