McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.

101 So. 2d 704, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 563
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 17, 1958
DocketNo. 4567
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 101 So. 2d 704 (McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph 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
McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co., 101 So. 2d 704, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 563 (La. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

Plaintiff, individually and on behalf of his minor son, filed this suit in which he is seeking to recover expenses and damages allegedly suffered by his son as a result of having been struck and injured while riding his bicycle across North Forty-fifth street in the City of Baton Rouge by a truck belonging to the defendant and driven at the time by the latter’s employee, Nolan Chaix, at about 5:00 p. m. on May 29, 1956.1

The lower court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, individually, in the sum of $146.50, plus legal interest thereon from the date of judicial demand until paid, and further judgment in favor of the plaintiff on behalf of his minor son for the sum of $3,000, plus legal interest thereon from date of judicial demand until paid, and for all costs of suit.

From this judgment the defendant has appealed.

The accident in question occurred on North Forty-fifth Street which is an asphalt street, 23 feet in width and runs north and south and intersects Winborn street, which is 22 feet in width and runs east and west. West of the intersection of the two streets and south of Winborn Street is an eleven foot shoulder which adjoins the concrete, and south of this shoulder is a four foot concrete sidewalk which ends thirteen feet from the west parallel line running north and south of North Forty-fifth street where its intersects Winborn street. At the end of the sidewalk is a three to four inch drop down to the dirt. Approximately three feet south of an extension of the south parallel line of this sidewalk and a distance four feet six inches east of the end of the sidewalk is a utility pole, and a short distance south and in a diagonal southeast [705]*705direction from this pole is a fireplug which is seven feet from the west parallel boundary line of North Forty-fifth street. Also playing an important part in the facts in this case is a path shown on a map introduced herein which runs from the sidewalk mentioned diagonally in a southeast direction and which leaves the sidewalk at a point approximately twenty-three feet west of its eastern end. This path ends at a point where it connects with a concrete parking space used in connection with a doctor’s office building. This concrete parking space joins the western parallel north and south boundary line of North Forty-fifth Street. Following the diagonally running path just described from its beginning and thence across the concrete parking space to the west boundary line of the asphalt portion of North Forty-fifth street is a distance of 36 feet. It is also shown that on the eastern side of North Forty-fifth Street and the southern side of Winborn Street at their intersection for a distance to the south past the established point of the accident, which is shown to be 15 or 16 feet south of the-intersection of North Forty-fifth and Winborn Avenue, there is shell and gravel for a distance of approximately three feet out into North Forty-fifth Street along its eastern boundary and extending on up into Winborn Street. This shell and gravel got into the street from a parking lot south of Winborn Street and east of North Forty-fifth street which is used in connection with a commercial establishment.

At about 4:45 p. m. on the day of the accident the defendant’s truck, driven by its employee, came down Winborn street traveling west, and when it got to North Forty-fifth Street he turned to his left or to the south on his way to the defendant’s place of business three blocks to the south, and when he had gotten into North Forty-fifth Street twenty-six feet south of the south parallel line of Winborn Street, which would also be fifteen feet south of the north parallel line of the concrete sidewalk which has been described as ending thirteen feet to the west of the east side of North Forty-fifth street, the front end of the truck struck plaintiff’s son who was attempting to cross North Forty-fifth Street from west to east.

It is the plaintiff’s contention that his minor son had been sent by his mother, along with his older brother, Richard, on an errand to purchase something at a store located to the west of North Forty-fifth Street, and the two brothers had been joined by a friend Mike Causey, and all three boys had ridden their bicycles to the store and were returning to the plaintiff’s home at the time of the accident. The home of the plaintiff was located one block east of North Forty-fifth Street and two blocks south of Winborn Street on Addison Street. Therefore, plaintiff’s sons and their friend could have returned to plaintiff’s home by proceeding along the sidewalk heretofore described to the west of North Forty-fifth Street and crossed the latter street to the east side and continued on the sidewalk along the south of Win-born Street one block to turn south and have gone two and a half blocks, or the boys could have come down the sidewalk to its end and then the thirteen feet to North Forty-fifth street and then turned to the south and gone down North Forty-fifth Street two blocks and then over to Addison Street and thence home. The third alternative or route that could have been traveled by these boys was to come along the sidewalk on the south of Win-born Street until they got to the path which intersected the sidewalk at a point 23 feet from its end and followed this path which ran in a diagonally southeast direction until it joined the concrete parking space heretofore described and thence across this parking space and either south on North Forty-fifth or across North Forty-fifth Street to its eastern side and thence either back north to Winborn Street and home or, more likely, turn south on the east side of North Forty-fifth street for two blocks and across to Addison Street and then one-half block to their home. These routes [706]*706are mentioned as it is the plaintiff’s contention that his minor son in company with his older brother and friend, came down the sidewalk to the south of Winborn Street to its end and then out into North Forty-fifth Street with the intention of crossing to the east side thereof and thence continuing along the sidewalk south of Winborn Street to Addison Street and then south to their home, whereas, it was the defendant’s contention that the boys came to this sidewalk which it is definitely shown was used by bicycle riders and particularly the children in the neighborhood and those which attended a school to the east of North Forty-fifth Street and south of Winborn, and at this point the young son of plaintiff, who was in the lead, turned along this path and that there were at the time six cars, or approximately that many, parked on the concrete parking space and that he proceeded from this concrete parking space directly into the path of the defendant’s truck. The plaintiff also contends that the point of the accident was eight feet from the east parallel line of North Forty-fifth Street and thirteen feet from the West parallel line of North Forty-fifth Street, whereas the defendant contends that the point of the accident was slightly to the left of the front center of the truck and that the latter was exactly in the middle of the street. In other words, the defendant contends that its truck had turned from Winborn Street into North Forty-fifth Street and was exactly in the middle of the street, half of the truck being in the east or north bound lane of travel and the other half in the west or south bound lane of travel on North Forty-fifth Street.

The plaintiff further contended that the failure of the driver of defendant’s truck to turn from Winborn Street to his left into North Forty-fifth street as legally directed under the provisions of LSA-R.S.

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Related

Guidry v. Grain Dealers Mutual Insurance Company
193 So. 2d 873 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1967)
Smith v. Northern Insurance Company of New York
120 So. 2d 309 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.
120 So. 2d 501 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1960)

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Bluebook (online)
101 So. 2d 704, 1958 La. App. LEXIS 563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccandless-v-southern-bell-telephone-telegraph-co-lactapp-1958.