Metoyer v. Benjamin

784 So. 2d 823, 2001 WL 460833
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 2001
DocketNo. 00-1728
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 784 So. 2d 823 (Metoyer v. Benjamin) 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
Metoyer v. Benjamin, 784 So. 2d 823, 2001 WL 460833 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

It WOODARD, Judge.

Mr. Don Metoyer sued Mr. Doffie Benjamin and his insurer, Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate), for personal injuries that he sustained when Mr. Benjamin’s truck struck his wrecker’s left, front fender. Mr. Benjamin and his wife, Ms. Delores Benjamin, filed claims for their personal injuries against Mr. Metoyer and his insurer, Colonia Insurance Company (Co-lonia). Ms. Benjamin also filed a claim against Místate. The trial court held Mr. Benjamin solely responsible for the accident, denied his claims and awarded Mr. Metoyer $6,000.00 in general damages and $843.93 in medical expenses and Ms. Benjamin $5,500.00 in general damages and $1,263.00 in medical expenses. Mr. and Ms. Benjamin appeal. Mr. Benjamin alleges that the trial court erred in finding Mr. Benjamin solely responsible for the accident, that his counsel should have been allowed to use the police reports to impeach witnesses under cross-examination and that he should have been awarded damages. Ms. Benjamin seeks an increase in her damage awards. We find no manifest or legal error in the trial court’s decisions and affirm.

[825]*825‡

On May 2, 1997, the Natchitoches Police Department called Archie’s Wrecker Service to remove a disabled vehicle that had been involved in an accident at the intersection of La. 6 and La. IB in Natchitoch-es, Louisiana. The wrecker service dispatched Mr. Metoyer to the scene with a wrecker. While maneuvering to remove the disabled car, Mr. Benjamin struck Mr. Metoyer’s wrecker in its front left portion causing personal injuries to both men and Ms. Benjamin.

The intersection at La. 6 and Louisiana La. IB consists of two four-lane highways with two lanes running in each direction. La. 6 runs in an east-west direction and La. IB runs in a north-south direction. A traffic light controls the intersection. The disabled vehicle Mr- Metoyer had been summoned to remove was located on the far left side of the road on La. 6 pointed in an easterly direction.

Mr. Metoyer approached the intersection in question from College Avenue with his emergency lights flashing. He drove through the intersection and parked the wrecker on the far right shoulder of La. IB ahead of the disabled vehicle. Upon arriving at the scene, he found two police vehicles, operating their emergency lights. 1 ¡¿Mr. Metoyer spoke briefly with the investigating officers. Then, he swept the glass debris off the road to prevent damaging the wrecker’s tires, and went back in the wrecker to tow the damaged car. He pulled the wrecker slightly forward at an angle, placed it in reverse, and was looking back at the car he was to tow, but not yet moving, when Mr. Benjamin’s truck hit the wrecker near the left front fender. As a result of the accident, Mr. Metoyer sustained cervical and lumbar muscle sprains, which required conservative medical treatment.

According to Mr. Benjamin, he had proceeded through the intersection on a green light at a normal speed, with a car proceeding him and one following him. He testified that he saw the wrecker and the police cars, but did not recall seeing any emergency lights flashing. He alleged he was traveling south on La. IB in the left lane when Mr. Metoyer pulled the wrecker forward into the left lane and hit his truck’s right side.

There were two eye witnesses to the accident, Detective Roger Henson and Mr. James Pleasant. The accident occurred while Detective Henson was investigating the first accident and stopping traffic in the east bound lane of La. 6 to allow Mr. Metoyer to back the wrecker up to the disabled car. He saw the wrecker in the right-hand lane of La. IB, not the left lane as Mr. Benjamin testified. Further, he testified that at the time of the Metoyer/Benjamin accident, Mr. Metoyer was stopped or only moving slightly.

Mr. Pleasant viewed the accident standing on the side of the road behind his wife’s car on La. 6. According to Mr. Pleasant, Mr. Benjamin’s truck passed through the intersection at 45 to 50 miles per hour, faked to reduce speed, and “sideswiped” the wrecker’s left side. He stated that at the time of the accident, he saw Mr. Benjamin looking at the damaged car and the wrecker was not moving at all or had just started to move a little bit.

Sergeant Carey Hargrove investigated the Metoyer/Benjamin accident. He testified that when he arrived at the scene, the emergency lights on the two police cars and the wrecker were operating. He opined that the accident happened in the mid-point of the right-hand lane of the La. IB. He testified that he had initially cited Mr. Metoyer with a violation for failing to yield to Mr. Benjamin’s car on his accident report because Mr. Metoyer had the green [826]*826light at the intersection. However, he later supplemented his report amending the violations section, because the wrecker was ^functioning as an emergency vehicle and under circumstances in which Mr. Benjamin had the duty to yield.

Mr. Metoyer filed a petition for damages against Mr. Benjamin and Allstate. Mr. Benjamin answered and filed a reconven-tional demand, naming Mr. Metoyer and his insurer, Colonia, as Defendants. Ms. Benjamin filed a third-party Plaintiffs action against Mr. Metoyer. Ms. Benjamin later added Allstate as a Defendant. After a hearing on February 22, 2000, the trial court awarded Mr. Metoyer $6,000.00 in general damages and $843.93 in medical expenses on March 21, 2000. On April 10, 2000, the trial court awarded Ms. Benjamin $5,500.00 in general damages and $1,263.00 in medical expenses. The trial court signed a final judgment on May 22, 2000. Mr. and Ms. Benjamin devolutively appeal.

Mr. and Ms. Benjamin allege that the trial court erred in assigning all fault for the accident to Mr. Benjamin, that his counsel should have been allowed to use the police reports to impeach witnesses under cross-examination and that he should have been awarded damages. Ms. Benjamin seeks an increase in her damage awards.

s}: í[í ;*5 ij:

The Trial Court’s Findings

Mr. Benjamin alleges two errors. Essentially, they both claim that the trial court erred when it found him to be solely at fault in causing the accident.

In Jim Walter Homes, Inc. v. Jessen,1 we stated that:

Our Supreme Court has recently reiterated the standard of review on appeal in Syrie v. Schilhab, 96-1027, p. 4 (La.5/20/97); 693 So.2d 1173, 1176 (citations omitted) as follows:
A court of appeal may not set aside a trial court’s finding of fact in the absence of “manifest error” or unless it is “clearly wrong”. This court has announced a two-part test for the reversal of the factfinder’s determinations: (1) the appellate court must find from the record that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of the trial court, and (2) the appellate court must further determine that the record establishes that the finding is clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous). The issue to be resolved by the reviewing court is not whether the trier of fact is right or wrong but whether the factfinder’s conclusion was a | ¿reasonable one.... The reviewing court must always keep in mind that if the trial court’s findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse, even if convinced that had it been sitting as trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.

In its reasons for judgment the trial court stated, in part:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rabalais v. Nash
952 So. 2d 653 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
784 So. 2d 823, 2001 WL 460833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metoyer-v-benjamin-lactapp-2001.