Noble v. Rideau

877 So. 2d 230, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 2004 WL 1396204
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 23, 2004
DocketNo. 38,699-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 877 So. 2d 230 (Noble v. Rideau) 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
Noble v. Rideau, 877 So. 2d 230, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 2004 WL 1396204 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

It HARRISON, J. (Pro Tempore).

In this automobile accident case, defendants in reconvention, Helen Noble and Safeway Insurance Company of Louisiana, appeal a judgment in favor of plaintiff in reconvention, Aaron Rideau. The court [231]*231found no comparative fault on the part of Mr. Rideau whose vehicle was struck by-Ms. Noble’s vehicle when Rideau had nearly completed a left turn from the roadway into a parking lot. Appellants assert that the trial court failed to properly apply the law regarding a left-turning motorist, and that the trial court clearly erred in concluding that the collision may have . occurred on the shoulder of the road. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

FACTS

On September 6, 2001, Mr. Rideau was driving a 1975 Ford-pickup on North Market Street in Shreveport, Louisiana. Ri-deau was headed in a northerly direction, and just before the accident he pulled into the left-turn lane at the intersection of North Market Street and Martin' Luther King Drive. In addition to the turn lane, there are two northbound lanes and two southbound lanes of North Market at the intersection. Rideau intended to turn left into the parking lot of a pawn shop located on the southwest corner of the intersection. In order to do so, he had to cross the double yellow line that separated the northbound and southbound lanes of North Market Street, cross the two southbound lanes, and enter the parking lot.

At the same time, Ms. Noble was driving her 1997 Chevrolet Lumina west on Martin Luther King Drive to where it intersected North Market Street. Martin Luther King Drive has a turn lane for eastbound motorists who wish to turn right onto North Market Street. The turn lane veers off at an angle from |2Martin Luther King Drive onto the outside southbound lane of North Market Street;, the turn lane has a yield sign for those motorists who are about to merge into the southbound lane.

In the moments before the accident, Mr. Rideau was stopped in the turn lane with approximately three vehicles ahead of him. His destination, the driveway of the pawn shop, was approximately 40 to 50 feet from the intersection. When the left-turn arrow of the traffic signal turned green, Rideau made his left turn toward the pawn shop driveway. At the same time, Ms. Noble was merging onto North Market Street from Martin Luther King Drive. Noble’s vehicle collided with the passenger side of the Rideau vehicle; the impact to the Ri-deau vehicle occurred just behind the passenger-side door between the door and the rear wheel well. After the impact, Ri-deau’s vehicle rolled into the pawn shop parking lot, while Noble’s vehicle came to a stop near the point of collision.

On November 26, 2001, Noble filed a petition for damages against Rideau and his insurer, Horace Mann Insurance Company. The defendants filed a general denial answer, pleading comparative fault in the alternative. Subsequently, the defendants filed a reconventional demand against Noble and her insurer, ■ Safeway Insurance Company of Lpuisiana. Noble and Safeway filed an answer denying the allegations of, the reconventional demand, and also pleading comparative negligence in the alternative.

In October 2003, pursuant to a joint motion to dismiss, all of Noble’s claims were dismissed with prejudice after Horace Mann paid her its policy ^limits on Rideau’s policy. The joint motion to dismiss reserved to Rideau all of his claims against Noble and Safeway.

When Rideau’s claims came on for trial, five witnesses testified. In addition to Mr. Rideau and Ms. Noble, there was testimony from Officer James Green of the Shreveport Police Department who investigated the accident, from Ms. Rosario Ay-roso (Mr. Rideau’s wife who was seated in the front passenger of his vehicle at the time of the accident), and from Mr. Shawn [232]*232Dudley (a driver who witnessed the aftermath of the accident.) As the following synopsis of the witnesses’ testimony shows, the facts of the accident were very much in dispute.

Officer Green testified that he investigated the accident immediately after its occurrence. However, at trial he could remember very little about the investigation and needed his official report to refresh his memory. Officer Green stated that Rideau told him Noble came around the curve and ran into Rideau as he was making a left turn, while Noble told the officer that Rideau pulled in front of her and she could not avoid hitting him. Noble’s vehicle was damaged across the front, while Rideau’s was damaged behind the passenger-side door. Although the accident report indicated that point of impact was in the outside southbound lane of North Market, Officer Green was unsure at trial how he made that determination. He could not recall seeing any debris in the roadway, and he did not recall if he asked either of the parties where the accident occurred. However, Officer Green did respond affirmatively when asked if Mr. Rideau had already crossed one southbound lane of North Market Land if the front of Rideau’s truck would have had to have already crossed the outside southbound lane as well.

Mr. Rideau testified next. He indicated that when the light turned green, he began to make his left turn to the pawn shop. He indicated that as he was going into the drive of the pawn shop, his wife yelled for him to “look out,” and he then saw Noble just before her vehicle hit his. According to Rideau, his truck “went up on the wheels on the driver’s side” upon impact, and as a result the driver’s side tires were “busted.” His vehicle then rolled down to the pawn shop. Rideau indicated that the impact occurred on the shoulder of the road, and that Noble’s vehicle stopped at that point because it really couldn’t go anywhere. According to Rideau, Noble came around the corner at a high rate of speed, hugging the shoulder, and would not have hit Rideau if she had stayed on the road. Rideau later testified that the reason he believed Noble was traveling at a high rate of speed was because the impact was hard enough to lift his truck off the ground.

The next witness to testify was Ms. Ay-roao, Mr. Rideau’s wife. Her testimony essentially corroborated that of her husband. She indicated that they were in the left-turn lane and noticed they had the arrow to turn onto Martin Luther King; when it was clear enough to turn, they went into the pawn shop driveway and were already into the driveway when they were struck. Although she did not know the direction in which the traffic was moving, she gave the following account of what happened from the point they started to make their turn:

Okay as we were turning uh we notice it was clear but me and my little brother were pay well myself I was paying attention to the Lears coming off of Martin Luther King on this uh they could make a right turn onto Martin Luther onto North Market it’s a there is a yield sign so you have to yield onto oncoming traffic and T notice that a car was coming and I you know I was lot of traffic comes through there and some people don’t slow down. Some people don’t stop. They don’t even yield. They just keep coming through and as we were turning into I felt we were safe enough you know but here comes this car. She just comes around. She’s she looks like she’s in the lane where you should be turning onto North Market but she was on the picture she was on the shoulder. [233]*233And she hit us. I mean even my little brother said she was coming pretty fast.

Ayroso stated that Noble did not look like she was slowing down and that she never made a complete stop at the yield sign.

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Bluebook (online)
877 So. 2d 230, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 2004 WL 1396204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noble-v-rideau-lactapp-2004.