Plaisance v. Smith

278 So. 2d 155, 1973 La. App. LEXIS 6101
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 15, 1973
DocketNo. 5497
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 278 So. 2d 155 (Plaisance v. Smith) 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
Plaisance v. Smith, 278 So. 2d 155, 1973 La. App. LEXIS 6101 (La. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

BAILES, Judge.

Plaintiff, individually and as tutrix of her two children, brings this tort action to recover damages for the alleged wrongful death of her husband, Curtis Joseph Plaisance. The defendant is Mrs. Helen R. Smith, driver of the automobile which struck and killed Mr. Plaisance. After trial on the merits, the court a quo rejected the demands of the plaintiff and dismissed the action. From this adverse judgment plaintiff appealed. We find the judgment is correct and, accordingly, we affirm.

For a cause of action, plaintiff alleges that while her deceased husband was walking in the grass in a northerly direction on the right side of Louisiana Street well off of the roadway of said street for traffic proceeding in a northerly direction, he was suddenly and without any warning, at about 7:52 p. m. struck violently by an automobile owned and driven by defendant in a northerly direction on said Louisiana Street in Westwego, Louisiana.

Appellant contends that her husband was free from negligence as he was walking in the grass and well off the northbound roadway and that the entire cause of the accident and consequences thereof was the negligence of the defendant.

It is alleged that the negligence of defendant consisted, in part, of the following, to-wit:

“a. In failing to keep a proper lookout;
“b. In failing to have her automobile under proper control;
“c. In driving said automobile in impaired physical condition;
“d. In driving at an excessive rate of speed under the circumstances, to-wit it was a very dark evening;
“e. In running over onto the grass verge of the roadway and striking plaintiff’s husband;
“f. In not seeing what she should have seen and could have seen, to-wit, plaintiff’s husband walking on the grass beyond the roadway in which she was traveling;
“g. In failing to blow the horn on her car;
“h. In driving in a reckless and careless manner in utter, wanton disregard of the safety and property of others.”

It appears that the decedent, Mr. Plaisance, accompanied by his wife, the plaintiff, was driving his automobile in a southerly direction on Louisiana Street in West-wego, Louisiana, on Sunday evening, September 22, 1968, at about 8:00 p. m. when one of the tires of his vehicle became flat and the hub cap became detached from the wheel. He stopped his car in the right lane of the two-lane street, there being insufficient shoulder area for parking purposes, got out and proceeded in the direction from which he had come in search for the hub cap. He was last seen about ISO feet north of his stopped vehicle, walking on the right side of the street in a northerly direction by a passing motorist immedi[157]*157ately prior to having been struck by defendant’s vehicle. Defendant’s vehicle was traveling in a northerly direction on the east side of the street.

The accident occurred on Louisiana Street, described in the accident report as an 18 feet wide asphalt street which runs north and south. The area, at the time of the accident was dark and the road was dry. From the investigation conducted by an officer of the Westwego Police Department, as shown by the accident report admitted in evidence by agreement of counsel, it was found that the defendant’s vehicle stopped 29 feet 4 inches past the point of impact and that the decedent’s body was found partly on the paved portion and partly on the shoulder of the street. From the photographs taken on the night of the accident, there was grass on the shoulder of the street extending to the pavement.

The defendant testified she never saw Mr. Plaisance. She further testified that upon feeling the impact she immediately stopped her car, got out and for the first time saw the decedent lying on the side of the street, and that prior to feeling the impact she was driving 25 to 30 mph. Upon applying the brakes her Cadillac sedan skidded to a stop across both lanes of traffic of the street perpendicular to her direction of travel.

The following testimony of Mrs. Smith, the defendant, is pertinent:

“Q * * * Will you in your own words tell the court what happened when you approached — when you passed the railroad tracks in the vicinity of Fourth and Louisiana Avenue in Westwego ?
“A. Well, * * * and its very dark on that street. I never saw anything until I heard a thud against my car and there were some oncoming lights in front of me. That’s all I saw.
Ü
“Q. Now when did you see those oncoming lights ?
“A. Well, I can’t say how many feet in front of me that I saw the lights but I know there was a car coming in the opposite direction.
“Q. Was this before the impact or after the impact?
“A. It was before.
(( * * *
“Q. What were you doing while you were driving?
“A. Watching the road in front of me.
“Q. Did you see anything out of the ordinary on this road ?
“A. No.
“Q. Were you distracted in any way?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. While you were driving?
“A. No, sir.”

Defendant was accompanied by her sixteen year old daughter who disclaimed any knowledge whatever of the accident. She explained that she was not attentive to the road or to the operation of the automobile as she was tuning the car radio.

Mr. Francois J. Carne, Jr., a printer and part-time taxi cab driver, testified that he was driving his cab in a southerly direction on Louisiana Street immediately prior to the accident; that as he approached the rear of the Plaisance vehicle which was stopped in his lane he saw Mr. Plaisance walking on the road toward the river (north), that when he saw Plaisance he (Carne) was about fifty feet from him, that because of an oncoming car he was required to stop behind the Plaisance vehicle until it passed, and that as he pulled to his left to proceed south around the parked Plaisance vehicle he heard an impact. (The witness described it as a Bang). Upon hearing the impact Mr. Carne pulled [158]*158in front of the Plaisance vehicle, got out of his taxi cab and ran back to the scene of the accident where he found Mr. Plaisance lying partly on the pavement and partly on the shoulder of the street. While he testified he also heard the braking of the defendant’s car he was unable to state which he heard first. On closer questioning, this witness was unable to be positive of where Mr. Plaisance was walking on the road. He stated it appeared to him that decedent was walking on the edge of the pavement, pretty close to the grass.

Photographs of the scene of the accident and of the defendant’s vehicle referred to above were taken by a Jefferson Parish Deputy Sheriff. These photographs were also admitted in evidence by agreement of counsel.

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Bluebook (online)
278 So. 2d 155, 1973 La. App. LEXIS 6101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plaisance-v-smith-lactapp-1973.