Matheny v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

181 So. 647, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 271
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 1, 1938
DocketNos. 5620, 5621.
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 181 So. 647 (Matheny v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty 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
Matheny v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 181 So. 647, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 271 (La. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

TALIAFERRO, Judge.

These consolidated suits in which damages for physical injuries, etc., are sought to be recovered, grew out of a collision in Bossier City, Louisiana, at the hour of one o’clock A. M., October 24, 1936, between a V-8 Ford sedan, driven by defendant, E. S. White, and a Ford coupe in which were traveling plaintiffs, Frank S. Matheny and Mrs. Grace C. Shoemaker, then being driv.en by the former. Dr. Harlan Shoemaker also sues to recover the amounts expended by him for medical, surgical, dental and hospital services rendered Mrs. Shoemaker, his wife, and for the cost of brace and special shoe; also for the estimated cost of plastic surgery to her face, an operation on the right knee and the additional estimated expense for dental surgery not yet performed.

The sedan was' traveling westerly. The coupe was going easterly. The collision occurred on the convex side of a rather sharp easterly curve in U. S. highway No. 80, not over four blocks from the east end of the new traffic bridge which spans Red River. Accompanying White in the sedan were S. R. Burroughs, W. D. Garner and H. M. Cone. All were residents of Mansfield, Louisiana, excepting Cone, whose home was in Houston, Texas.

The specific acts of carelessness and negligence alleged to have been the sole and proximate cause of the collision are: Operation of his car immediately prior to and at the time of the collision at an excessive and dangerous rate of speed, and in violation of the laws of Bossier City; that because of such speed, he did not have the car under such control as the physical conditions at and about the locus of the collision demanded, and for these reasons and causes, he crossed from his side of the highway into the path of the coupe and created conditions which resulted in and made inevitable the collision.

White-was a salesman, employee of the Mansfield Motor Company, Incorporated, of Mansfield, Louisiana, The sedan was owned by that company. White and the company’s public liability insurer, the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, were impleaded as defendants.

The theory upon which plaintiffs’ suits are based and their hopes of recovery predicated is that White, at the time of the accident and from the time he left Mansfield the evening prior, was on a mission for his employer and was in the active discharge of his duties as salesman. They allege that the trip from Mansfield to Keithville, 25 miles north, was made by White under instructions from his employer for the purpose of calling upon two prospective buyers of automobiles at Keithville, Louisiana, and that he was also instructed to proceed from Keithville to Shreveport to see and study, as a part of his duties, the Ford automobile exhibit then being installed at the Louisiana State Fair Grounds; that at a place known as Kickapoo, which is a few miles south of the city of Shreveport and not far from the Fair Grounds, White contacted one H. M. Cone, who was interested in buying a car and who was known to White to be a prospective buyer; that Cone was then and there invited by White to ride in the sedan with him and he accepted the invitation and accompanied White to the Fair Grounds and continuously thereafter to the moment of the accident; that White was and had been prior to the accident endeavoring to sell Cone a car. It is further alleged, in substance, that after completing his observations and study of the Ford ex *649 hibit at the Fair Grounds, White, accompanied by Burroughs and Cone, the prospective buyer, drove in said sedan to a sandwich stand in Bossier City to procure something to eat; that the meal was preparatory to the return to Mansfield and was a necessary incident to enable White to complete the business trip for his employer, and to then return to Mansfield with his employer’s car that night so as to be present there the following morning to resume his work as salesman; that after completing said meal, the party in said car, with White driving, started back to Kickapoo and to Mansfield, for all of said related purposes, and that the collision occurred very soon after said return trip was begun.

The insurer and White severed in answering. The former admits issuance of the policy sued on to the Mansfield Motor Company and the accident, but denies liability of any character for the- results. This denial is based upon the 'affirmative aver-ments that White’s use and operation of the sedan from the moment he left in it from Mansfield the evening of October 23rd to the time of the collision was not that of agent for the insured, and that on said trip he was not on a mission for it nor- was he performing any duty of or incident to his employment; but, on the contrary, was on a personal pleasure trip wholly dissociated from his employer’s business.

In the alternative, the insurer avers that if it be found as a fact that the collision was to any extent caused by White’s negligence, Matheny was also negligent in that he was driving the coupe at an excessive rate of speed when the collision occurred and was then on the wrong side of the highway, etc.

White denies that his negligence or carelessness caused the accident. He admits that the trip from Mansfield to Keithville was for the purpose of calling upon two prospective buyers of automobiles, and that the trip and his actions in this respect were in the course and scope of his employment. He further avers that at Kickapoo he contacted Cone, also alleged to be á prospective car buyer, and that in furtherance of his desire and efforts to sell him a car, he accompanied Cone to the State Fair in Shreveport. He admits that the party drove from- the Fair Grounds to Bossier City to procure something to eat, and after doing this, they started back to Mansfield to return the car and be present the following morning for duty.

The contributory negligence of Matheny, in the alternative, is pleaded (as by the insurer) in bar of recovery by either plaintiff. As against Mrs. Shoemaker’s right to recover, and in the alternative, it is specially pleaded that the coupe was owned by her and that Matheny was operating it as her agent, and that his negligence in the respects above mentioned was her negligence, and therefore, she is as responsible therefor as he; that she had ample opportunity to see the highway ahead and to observe the careless manner in which Matheny was operating the car and negligently failed to protest against same or warn him of the danger, etc. Her negligence in these respects is declared to have been a proximate cause of the collision and sufficient in, law to bar any recovery by her herein.

Judgments against both defendants, in solido,, were awarded plaintiffs as follows:

Mrs. Shoemaker. $8,500.00
Dr. Shoemaker. 1,081.00
Matheny. 2,673.00

No increase in these amounts is asked by plaintiffs. Defendant, the insurer, vigor- ■ ously assails them as being excessive.

Liability of the insurer for damages resulting from the accident is not questioned should it be found and held that when the accident occurred White was performing a duty or duties, as agent or salesman for his principal (the insured), comprehended within the terms of his contract of employment.

As regards White’s negligence as the .sole cause of the collision, there is virtually no dispute.

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Bluebook (online)
181 So. 647, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matheny-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-lactapp-1938.