Nettles v. Great American Insurance Company

155 So. 2d 87
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 1, 1963
Docket5862
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 155 So. 2d 87 (Nettles v. Great American Insurance Company) 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
Nettles v. Great American Insurance Company, 155 So. 2d 87 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

155 So.2d 87 (1963)

Prentiss B. NETTLES et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 5862.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 3, 1963.
Rehearing Denied July 1, 1963.
Certiorari Refused October 1, 1963.

*88 Taylor, Porter, Brooks, Fuller & Phillips, by John I. Moore, Baton Rouge, for appellants.

Dyer & Wilson, by Billy O. Wilson, Baton Rouge, for appellees.

Before ELLIS, LOTTINGER, HERGET, LANDRY and REID, JJ.

ELLIS, Judge.

These proceedings arise out of a rear-end collision which occurred at the intersection of Florida Blvd. and North Foster Drive in the City of Baton Rouge on August 25, 1960. Prentiss B. Nettles was the owner of a 1957 Chevrolet which was being driven by his minor son, Charles Houston Nettles. The Chevrolet was struck from the rear by a 1960 Buick being driven by James Nagel, owned by Miller Buick Company and insured by Great American Insurance Company.

The trial court found that the cause of the accident was the negligence of the defendant, James Nagel and we concur in this determination. The defendant on appeal has not seen fit to urge either that James Nagel was free of negligence or that Charles Houston Nettles was contributorily negligent and has evidently abandoned these contentions.

The issues on appeal involve the defendants' plea of prescription, whether or not Prentiss B. Nettles and/or Charles Houston Nettles are properly before the court, and quantum.

On August 9, 1961 Prentiss B. Nettles filed this suit as head and master of the community of acquets and gains in existence between himself and his wife seeking $480.20 in automobile property damage and medical bills. He also appeared in that suit as the administrator of the estate of his minor son, Charles Houston Nettles, seeking $30,000.00 for past and future pain, suffering, disability and inconvenience and for loss of one year's education at Louisiana State University.

*89 The suit was brought against James Nagel and Great American Insurance Company as the negligent driver and liability insurer respectively.

Prentiss B. Nettles' petition, however, discloses that Charles Houston Nettles became twenty-one years of age on February 6, 1961, some six months prior to the suit filed by his father. Therefore, at the time suit was filed, it cannot be seriously disputed that Prentiss B. Nettles was without a right of action as to the cause of action involving the claim for pain and loss of education. This cause of action belonged to Charles Houston Nettles at all times and upon reaching age twenty-one he should have brought the action himself.

Nearly two months after the passage of the first anniversary of the accident, the defendants, Great American Insurance Company and James Nagel filed a peremptory exception of no right of action alleging therein that Prentiss B. Nettles had no right of action as to the claim for bodily injury to Charles Houston Nettles, the latter being a competent major as of the date suit was filed. The trial judge was evidently impressed with the defendants' oral argument because the court minutes for October 31, 1961 read as follows:

"For oral reasons assigned plaintiff is allowed 15 days within which to substitute party plaintiff, otherwise exception of no right of action will be maintained and plaintiff's suit dismissed."

The plaintiff sought to comply with this decision by a joint motion of Prentiss B. Nettles and Charles Houston Nettles signed and filed November 8, 1961, which contains the following unfortunate language:

"IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that Charles Houston Nettles be substituted as the proper party plaintiff and that Prentiss B. Nettles be relieved of any further action or appearance in the above captioned matter."

On November 13, 1961 defendants filed a peremptory exception of prescription alleging that as "Prentiss B. Nettles was without procedural or representative capacity to bring suit on behalf of his adult son * * * the filing of suit by Prentiss B. Nettles did not interrupt prescription as to Charles Houston Nettles." Thus, not having been asserted until more than one year after the accident, the cause of action had prescribed.

This plea of prescription was overruled by the trial court on authority of Ray v. Liberty Industrial Life Insurance Company, La.App., 180 So. 855. The Ray case involved an action by the beneficiary of an insurance policy. The defendant insurance company sought to avoid payment of a death claim on the ground that the cause of action had prescribed. The court found, however, that the prescriptive period had been interrupted by a prior suit which had been filed by an alleged assignee of the beneficiary in an attempt to collect on the identical policy which was the foundation of the present suit, within the prescriptive period against the same defendant. The opinion in that case at page 856 reads in part as follows:

"Plaintiff, relying upon the earlier suit as interrupting prescription, calls attention to many cases in the reports of this state in which our courts have interpreted the provisions of the various articles of the Civil Code touching upon prescriptive periods and upon the various circumstances which tend to interrupt the running of prescription. Plaintiff also cites many cases here and elsewhere, in each of which it was held that an earlier unsuccessful suit had interrupted the limitation period. In some the citations in the earlier suits had been defective; in others the courts in which the earlier suits had been filed had been without jurisdiction; and in others the earlier suits had been dismissed for technical reasons, but in each it was held that the *90 earlier suit was sufficient to interrupt prescription.
"Without further reference to those and other cases, we deem it sufficient to say that, even prior to the enactment of Act No. 39 of 1932, to which we shall later refer, it had been well settled that the running of prescription was interrupted by an earlier suit which fairly apprised the obligor of the existence of the claim, and that technical defects as to parties plaintiff or in citation did not alter the situation, and, as we have said, this rule was well established as a result of the provisions of the Civil Code—notably article 3484—even before the enactment of the statute to which we have referred.
"In 9 Tulane Law Review, page 286, in an article entitled `Prescription— Interruption,' appears the following: `* * * Numerous cases have held that although there is some mistake as to the parties plaintiff, nevertheless the suit will interrupt prescription. Blanc v. Dupre, 36 La.Ann. 847, supra (suit by curator of succession whose appointment was null); Flower v. O'Connor, 1841, 17 La. 213 (suit by surviving partner of a firm who was non-suited because of lack of authority to represent the others); Becnel v. Waguespack, 1888, 40 La.Ann. 109, 3 So. 536 (suit by one co-owner for damage by trespass); Wolf & Sons v. New Orleans Tailor-Made Pants Co., 1903, 110 La. 427, 34 So. 590 (suit by individuals in their own names for tort to commercial partnership). This is in line with the French jurisprudence, in that the plaintiff need not have the capacity to sue in order to interrupt prescription. Huc, Connentaire du Code Civil XIV (1902) No. 386, p. 488; Baudry-Lacantenarie et Tissier, op. cit. supra No. 484, p. 369."

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155 So. 2d 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nettles-v-great-american-insurance-company-lactapp-1963.