McMorris v. Hanover Insurance Co.

175 So. 2d 697
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 24, 1965
Docket6398
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 175 So. 2d 697 (McMorris v. Hanover Insurance 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
McMorris v. Hanover Insurance Co., 175 So. 2d 697 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

175 So.2d 697 (1965)

V. J. McMORRIS
v.
HANOVER INSURANCE CO. et al.
Mrs. Ann M. FINCH
v.
EMPLOYERS MUTUAL OF OMAHA et al.

No. 6398.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 24, 1965.

*698 Walker P. Macmurdo, of Percy, Macmurdo & Gray, William H. Brown, of Howell, Lipsey & Brown, Baton Rouge, for appellants.

Ben W. Lightfoot, of Durrett, Hardin, Hunter, Dameron & Fritchie, Robert J. Vandaworker, of Taylor, Porter, Brooks, Fuller & Phillips, Baton Rouge, for appellees.

Before ELLIS, LOTTINGER, LANDRY, BAILES, and KEARNEY, JJ.

KEARNEY, Judge pro tem.

These two cases, consolidated below for trial only, arose out of the same automobile collision which occurred in the City of Baton Rouge on September 10, 1962, shortly before 6:30 p. m.

Mr. Eugene F. Finch, with his wife, Mrs. Ann M. Finch, as a passenger, was driving a 1960 Rambler Station Wagon easterly on Government Street, a four-lane street with a width of 44 to 45 feet. As he turned *699 left into a driveway of the Colonial Motor Lodge, a residential motel where he rented a unit, his station wagon was struck on the right side by a 1957 Pontiac which was being driven westerly on Government Street by V. J. McMorris.

McMorris filed suit against Eugene F. Finch and his insurer, Hanover Insurance Company. The plaintiff's collision insurer, American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, intervened in that suit for $400 representing the portion of the damages to the McMorris vehicle which it had paid in accordance with its policy in excess of the deductible of $50.00.

Mrs. Ann M. Finch filed suit against her husband's liability insurer, Hanover Insurance Company, and against McMorris and Employers Mutual of Omaha. The latter insurance company was alleged to be the liability insurer of the McMorris vehicle; however, Employers Mutual of Omaha made no appearance. In his answer McMorris alleged that his liability insurer was actually Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wisconsin, but the plaintiff did not amend her pleadings to join that company, and the suit proceeded to its conclusion against McMorris alone.

Finch did not sue or reconvene against McMorris for the damages to his station wagon.

In McMorris v. Hanover Insurance Company, judgment was rendered and signed rejecting the demands of the plaintiff and the intervenor and dismissing the plaintiff's suit and the intervention. McMorris has appealed. The intervenor has allowed the judgment dismissing its claim to become definitive without appeal.

In Finch v. Employers Mutual of Omaha there was judgment rejecting the plaintiff's demands and dismissing her suit. Mrs. Finch has appealed.

The district court gave no written reasons for the judgments and oral reasons are not reported. Therefore, except for certain gratuitous references in some of the briefs filed in this court adverting to the judge's comments, we do not know the basis of the decision. Mrs. Finch, it will be noted, was a guest passenger, and her failure to recover could result only from a failure to prove that either driver was guilty of negligence proximately causing the accident (an unlikely possibility dependent upon the availability and reliability of evidence) or that the guest passenger was guilty of independent contributory negligence (a rather limited concept). The dismissal of the McMorris case may have resulted from a failure to carry the burden of proving negligence on the part of Finch as a proximate cause of the accident or from a conclusion that McMorris was contributorily negligent.

The questions presented are substantially factual, and must be resolved from conflicting and rather cursory testimony regarding the accident.

Mr. Finch testified that he slowed down to 10 or 20 miles per hour and changed to low gear when he approached a point opposite the driveway. He had his left-turn signal on. He looked eastward or straight ahead, and noted that the traffic light at the "Foster Avenue intersection was red, which protected me." He saw no cars approaching and proceeded with his turn. He never saw the McMorris vehicle until after the collision which occurred when all four wheels of the Finch station wagon were on the driveway off the street. According to Mr. Finch the Foster Drive intersection was 580 feet east of the driveway apron.

Mrs. Finch corroborated her husband's testimony. She was watching for traffic also and noted that the light at the intersection was red. She did not see the McMorris car until immediately before the impact, but she insisted that the McMorris vehicle was traveling without lights. Mr. Finch testified that he did not stop before turning, but Mrs. Finch said he came almost to a stop if not a complete stop.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Finch deduced that Mr. McMorris must have been traveling at a great rate of speed based upon the fact *700 that he was not in sight at the time they looked down the street.

There is a disagreement among the witnesses as to the point of impact. The Finch car was struck on the right front door from the corner post to the front of the rear door. Mr. and Mrs. Finch contend that their vehicle was off the street when it was struck, after the complete negotiation of the turn. Mrs. Finch's niece, Mrs. William Bohannon, and her husband, testified that they happened upon the scene shortly after the accident, and that the station wagon had all four wheels on the driveway with only the back end extending into the street. The McMorris vehicle had its two front wheels and right rear wheel in the driveway off the street. Mr. Bohannon testified that there was broken glass in the driveway, which he assumed came from the headlights of the McMorris vehicle. Mrs. Bohannon testified that she noticed a broken or intermittent skid mark on the curb beginning about sixty feet east of the driveway extending to the point of impact. She speculated that the skid mark was made by the right wheels of the McMorris vehicle. She could not explain how the car came to rest straddling the curb if the mark made by the right wheels was on the curb.

J. W. Smith, the City Policeman who investigated the accident, testified that the McMorris vehicle left 70 feet of light skid marks in the street which marks appeared to veer slightly to the right and ending at the curb line where the car came to rest. There were two parallel skid marks, both in the street. The point of impact, according to the officer, was on the north parallel line of Government Street at the entrance to the Colonial Courts.

According to Mr. Smith, the speed limit was 40 miles per hour.

Mr. McMorris testified that he was on his way to the Medical Department of Ethyl Corporation to have drops put in his eye caused by a welding arc flash burn. (There is no suggestion that his eyesight was affected.) He was traveling on the right or northernmost lane of traffic about 35 or 40 miles per hour, with his lights on. Mr. Finch was approaching on the inside lane for eastbound traffic. When McMorris was 20 or 30 feet or more east of the driveway, Mr. Finch turned into the path of the approaching McMorris vehicle. Mr. McMorris was obviously incorrect in his estimation of the distance, because he left 70 feet of skid marks. McMorris testified that he immediately applied his brakes, but that he was unable to avoid the collision. The front of his car came into contract with the Finch vehicle and was knocked over against the curb. When the collision occurred, according to Mr. McMorris, the Finch vehicle was entirely in the street. After the accident the front wheels were a foot or two into the driveway.

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