Randall v. Baton Rouge Bus Company

124 So. 2d 535, 240 La. 527, 1960 La. LEXIS 1055
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 7, 1960
Docket44876, 44880
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 124 So. 2d 535 (Randall v. Baton Rouge Bus Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Randall v. Baton Rouge Bus Company, 124 So. 2d 535, 240 La. 527, 1960 La. LEXIS 1055 (La. 1960).

Opinions

TURNER, Justice.

This suit was brought by plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Randall, for damages for the deaths of their two minor children arising out of an accident which occurred on November 11, 1957, at the intersection of Winn Avenue and Goodwood Avenue in the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The accident involved a bus owned by Baton Rouge Bus Company, Inc., one of the defendants, and driven by John B. Miller in the course and scope of his employment, and a Plymouth automobile owned by Duncan-Randall Tire & Auto Supply, Inc., and driven by W. H. Randall, the grandfather of the deceased children. The Travelers Insurance Company, as the liability insurer of the Plymouth, was also made a defendant.

The district court found the driver of the bus and the driver of the car guilty of negligence proximately causing the accident and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiffs and against both defendants, in solido, for the total sum of $61,480.61. This award was based on $15,000 to each parent for the death of each child, plus $1,480.61 to the father for the funeral and burial expenses of both children. The judgment limited the liability of The Travelers Insurance Company to $50,000 in principal in accordance with its policy limits.

From this judgment both defendants appealed to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, and plaintiffs answered the appeal asking for an increase in the award for the deaths of the minors. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of the district court insofar as it held the Baton Rouge Bus Company, Inc., solidarily liable with The Travelers Insurance Company and reduced the quantum to $49,480.61 or $12,000 per parent per child plus the funeral and burial expenses of $1,480.61.

Plaintiffs and The Travelers Insurance Company applied to this Court for writs of certiorari or review. Both applications were granted, and both writs in the case were consolidated.

The record shows that Goodwood Avenue, at the scene of the accident, runs generally in an easterly-westerly direction and is a two-lane black topped street. Winn Avenue runs in a general northerly-southerly direction and is also a two-lane black topped street, meeting Goodwood Avenue at a rather sharp angle from the northwest. On the north side of Goodwood Avenue and to the west of Winn Avenue is another two-lane black topped street, Sevenoaks Avenue, which runs into Goodwood Avenue at the same point as does Winn Avenue. [534]*534Goodwood Avenue is a through street and has the right of way over both the intersecting streets, and at the time of the accident traffic at the intersection was controlled by stop signs both on Winn Avenue and Sevenoaks Avenue. Prior to the collision W. H. Randall, accompanied by his two grandchildren, minor children of plaintiffs, was driving a Plymouth sedan in a southerly direction on Winn Avenue approaching Goodwood Avenue. At the same time a bus, owned and operated by the Baton Rouge Bus Co., Inc., was proceeding in a westerly direction on Goodwood Avenue, approaching its intersection with Winn Avenue. The undisputed evidence reveals that Randall, the driver of the Plymouth automobile, traveling at approximately 30 to 35 m. p. h. drove past the stop sign into Goodwood Avenue without slowing, swerving or stopping, and his vehicle was struck on its left side by the front end of the bus. As a result of the accident the two minor children, as well as Randall, were killed.

That the negligence of Randall was a proximate cause of the accident is not in dispute, his insurer, The Travelers Insurance Company, one of the defendants here, having conceded its liability. The questions to be resolved by this Court are whether the bus driver was also negligent, and, if so, was his negligence a proximate cause of the accident, as well as the propriety of the award.

The trial judge based his conclusion that the bus company was liable upon his finding that the bus driver, Miller, at the time of the accident was driving at an excessive rate of speed, failed to keep a proper lookout and failed to keep the bus under proper control at all times. The court of appeal, on the other hand, found that Miller did keep a proper lookout and was not negligent even though it agreed with the district court that the bus was traveling at an excessive rate of speed immediately prior to the accident, holding that such excessive speed was not a proximate cause of the accident.

The law is well settled that the driver on the right of way thoroughfare is ordinarily entitled to presume that drivers from side streets will not enter on the superior thoroughfare in his path, especially' when he knows that a stop sign inhibits entrance from the inferior street. This preference created by statutes or by signals or stop signs on a favored street does not relieve the driver traveling on the favored street from the duty of exercising ordinary care of having his car under control and operating it at a reasonable and proper rate of speed while approaching an intersection and while crossing it. Miller v. Abshire, La.App. 1st Cir., 68 So.2d 143, and Bahry v. Folse, La.App. 1st Cir., 83 So.2d 912. The degree of care imposed upon the driver on the superior thoroughfare [536]*536increases when he approaches an intersection of unusual and irregular design, and which he knows to be dangerous. When the superior motorist should reasonably realize in time that the inferior traffic will continue its approach and will obstruct the superior motorist’s passage across the intersection, he is guilty of negligence should he fail to take every precaution to avoid a collision. Comeaux v. Blanchet, La.App. 1st Cir., 69 So.2d 527.

As stated by the lower court in this case, each case must be decided on its peculiar set of facts and circumstances. In a case of this type it is necessary that we first consider the locus in quo upon which there is generally little dispute. We then must consider the testimony of the persons who witnessed the accident plus the physical facts at the time of and following the accident in an endeavor to ascertain how the accident occurred. We then must apply the law to the case to determine the responsibility for the accident. The district court and the court of appeal in their opinions fully discussed all of the testimony adduced on the trial of this case. We have considered the testimony and the analysis of same by each court. We have also considered the authorities cited by each court, and after a complete analysis of the case we are unable to agree with the opinion of the court of appeal insofar as it exonerated Miller, the driver of defendant company’s bus, from negligence. Of course, it is immaterial as ■to the degree of negligence by Miller buf, in our opinion, Miller was negligent and his negligence was one of the proximate causes of this tragic accident for which his employer is answerable in damages. Miller was not made a defendant.

The evidence reveals that the stop sign controlling traffic on Winn Avenue was located 48 feet from the intersection of Winn Avenue and Goodwood Avenue and 55 feet from the point of impact. It was also shown that a driver approaching Winn Avenue traveling west on Goodwood Avenue (the direction of the bus) had a visibility of 122 feet down Winn Avenue at a point on Goodwood Avenue 90 feet from the intersection of the two streets. This intersection was a particularly dangerous one, not only, because of the heavy traffic, but because Winn Avenue and Sevenoaks Avenue enter Goodwood from the north at sharp angles while Sevenoaks Avenue continues across Goodwood forming a five-corner intersection.

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Bluebook (online)
124 So. 2d 535, 240 La. 527, 1960 La. LEXIS 1055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/randall-v-baton-rouge-bus-company-la-1960.