Penton v. Fisher

155 So. 35, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 738
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 8, 1934
DocketNo. 1308.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 155 So. 35 (Penton v. Fisher) 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
Penton v. Fisher, 155 So. 35, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 738 (La. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

ELLIOTT, Judge.

Three suits, the one above mentioned and that of Andrew Entrevia v. Max Fisher et al., 155 So. 41, and Jim Nettles v. Max Fisher et al., 155 So. 41, are based on the same cause of action and governed by the same law and facts. They were consolidated for the purposes of trial in the lower court and tried together, a separate judgment being rendered in each case.

The eases are all covered in the same brief and have been submitted to us as consolidated cases. We will deal with them on appeal accordingly. Our opinion in the Pen-ton case will therefore serve for the disposition of the other two cases.

Max Fisher and Mrs. Pauline Fisher, his wife, left their home in Bogalusa during the early morning of October 24, 1932, traveling in an automobile, intending to gó to Tyler-town by way of Franklinton. Their road from Bogalusa to Franklinton led westward. They had not gone more than 4 or 5 miles when their automobile was struck in the rea,r by a truck belonging to Murphy J. Clayton while being driven westward on the highway by his employee, Wade De Laune, just after it had passed over the crest of a hill and had started down the other side. It was not stopped by the blow, bui continued on down to the foot of the hill, a distance, which, due to discrepancies in the testimony of the witnesses concerning the distance, we estimate at between 75 and 125 feet, where it stopped in an angling position on the wrong side of the road in the direction in which it was going. .

As soon as it stopped, Fisher got out and assisted his wife out. He also tried to push the automobile back to the right side of the road, but could not move it. He then turned around to look for Bernstein, who, it seems, had been knocked out of the automobile as a result of the impact, and at that instant while Fisher and his wife were standing near their automobile, approximately stated about one minute after it had 'been struck in the rear, it was suddenly struck in front by another truck going eastward on the highway, belonging to Andrew Entrevia and while being driven by his employee, Grant Penton. The Entrevia truck was badly damaged, and Penton and Jim Nettles, another Entrevia employee riding on the truck, were, as a result of the collision, badly injured.

Andrew Entrevia, alleging injury to his truck, and Penton and Nettles, alleging injury to themselves, each brought suit against Fisher and his insurer, Guardian Casualty Insurance Company of Buffalo, N. Y., and against Murphy J. Clayton and his insurer, Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company of Boston, Mass. Entrevia claims $217.80 as damages done to his truck and $280 on account of the loss of its use, a total of $497.80. Jim Nettles claims $2,048 on account of personal injuries and for hospital, drug store, and medical bills. Grant Penton claims $1,533 on account of personal injuries, hospital and drug store bills. Judgment is prayed for in each case against the defendants in solido.

After the suit was filed, the plaintiffs and Max Fisher and Guardian Casualty Company entered into a compromise agreement whereby the three suits as between them were compromised and dismissed without prejudice to plaintiffs’ right to continue their suits against Clayton and Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Co.

Defendants Clayton and Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company excepted to plaintiffs’ petition in each case. Each of the plaintiffs filed amendments to their petition. The exceptions were ultimately overruled. Defendants then filed an answer in each case in which they deny the fault and negligence alleged against the driver of the Clayton truck, and placed the entire blame on Fisher; but in the alternative, and in the event it was found that defendants were in any way negligent and at fault, they allege *37 that plaintiffs’ contributory negligence and fault were responsible for the collision in which Entrevia’s trück was damaged and Nettles and Penton injured.

The trial resulted in a judgment in favor of Entrevia for. $217.80, in favor of Nettles for $1,030, and in favor of 'Penton for $520, and, as it was shown on the trial that En-trevia had been paid $217.80, Nettles $290.10, and Penton $290.10 in the compromise agreement heretofore mentioned, it was ordered that the judgments in their favor be credited with the sums received. The credit left nothing due Entrevia except the costs of court.

The defendants have appealed. We have not entered into the question whether the judgment rendered in the Entrevia case is appealable or not. There is no motion to dismiss, and, as all the facts in each case have to be considered in acting on the other two cases, the dismissal, if ordered, would not, as we see the situation, serve any legal purpose.

Defendants contend that the ruling overruling their exception of no cause of action was erroneous, and pray that it be reviewed and reversed. The exception is based on the averments contained in articles 6, 7, and 8 of plaintiffs’ petition:

“Art. 6. That said Wade De Laune was driving at a negligent rate of speed; that said Max Fisher was operating his ear without lights either front or rear and that the impact of the said Clayton truck and the said Max Fisher car knocked the said Fisher car some 150 feet up the road, or said Max Fisher, after his car had been struck from the rear by the Clayton truck, drove his ear about 150 feet up the road and bringing it to a stop over on the left side of the said highway going toward Franklinton or on the right coming toward Bogalusa, said car being left diagonally across wrong side of said highway.

“Art. 7. That immediately after Max Fisher brought his car to a stop, he and the other occupants got out of the car and left it standing unguarded and unattended and without lights on the wrong side of said highway directly in the path of all traffic coming toward Bogalusa and went back to where the Clayton truck was standing down the highway.

“Art. 8. Your petitioner now alleges that it was a very foggy morning and difficult to see at a distance, and that the said Max Fisher was grossly negligent to leave his car in such a position. * * * ”

Quoting these averments, defendants argue that plaintiffs admit an efficient and intervening act of negligence and fault on the part of Fisher in between the first and second collisions, not connected with the first collision, and in which Fisher’s independent fault and negligence was solely responsible for the impact between his automobile and the Entrevia truck in which the Entrevia truck was damaged and the plaintiffs Nettles and Penton received the injuries on account of which their claim for damages is based. .

If the above averments stood in the petitions of the respective plaintiffs alone, the position of defendants would seem to be unanswerable, but articles 4, 5, 11, and 12 contain charges from which it may be said that the fault and negligent driving and operation of the Clayton truck was the sole and proxi? mate cause of the collision between the Fisher automobile and the Entrevia truck. Plain? tiffs sought by amendments to remove the inconsistency. In each case after the exception was filed, but before the court ruled on the question, the plaintiffs filed an amended and supplemental petition, the purpose and object of whieh was to remedy the objections urged against the original petition and caused it to be served on defendants.

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Bluebook (online)
155 So. 35, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 738, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/penton-v-fisher-lactapp-1934.