Roberts v. Tenneco, Inc.

363 So. 2d 1275, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3029
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 12, 1978
DocketNo. 9465
StatusPublished

This text of 363 So. 2d 1275 (Roberts v. Tenneco, Inc.) 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
Roberts v. Tenneco, Inc., 363 So. 2d 1275, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3029 (La. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

BOUTALL, Judge.

Warren J. Roberts, alleging an injury at work, sued his employer and a number of other defendants in tort. Various defendants filed exceptions and four of the exceptions, primarily no cause of action and prescription, were maintained. Plaintiff’s suit was dismissed against those exceptors. He appeals.

Plaintiff filed suit on November 10, 1975 against Tenneco, Inc.,1 Delta Field Erection, The Travelers Insurance Company, and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, alleging that he was injured in the course of his employment for defendant Delta on the property of defendant Tenneco on December 6, 1974, when he was struck across his lower back and both legs by a boom of a crane owned by Tenneco and operated by Delta employees laying pipes under a contract with Tenneco. Thereafter, plaintiff filed five supplemental and amending petitions over a period of a year and a half, culminating with the fifth supplemental and amending petition filed on March 18, 1977. In these petitions he not only alleged additional facts concerning the general issue but also included as parties defendant a number of executive officers and employees [1277]*1277of the corporate defendants. Exceptions were filed by various defendants, and the trial court maintained four exceptions rendering a separate judgment on each one. We consider each one in turn.

EXCEPTION OF NO CAUSE OF ACTION UNDER ACT 147 OF 1976 (R.S. 23:1032 and 23:1101)

The Travelers Insurance Company is alleged to be the insurer of defendant Ten-neco and its officials and employees. It filed an exception of no right or cause of action contending that Act No. 147 of 1976, amending R.S. 23:1032 and 23:1101, prohibits the filing of suit against the executive officers and other fellow employees because the injured employee’s exclusive remedy is benefits under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. It contends that although the date of the accident occurred prior to the passage of Act 147, the act is remedial in nature and must be given retroactive effect; thus it reasons that plaintiff has no right to pursue a tort action against it as liability insurer of the executive officers. The trial judge agreed, maintaining the exception.

Some time after the judgment was rendered by the trial judge, we considered precisely such a proposition in the case of Green v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 352 So.2d 366 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1977, Writ refused January 30, 1978). In that case we discussed the applicable law and held that the law had no retroactive effect. We are controlled here by the same principles and we conclude that the trial judge erred in maintaining the exception. We also refer to the case of Billedeaux v. Adams, 355 So.2d 1345 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1978) approving our holding in Green.

Accordingly, the judgment maintaining this exception is reversed and the exception is now overruled.

PEREMPTORY EXCEPTION OF PRESCRIPTION

There exists considerable confusion amongst the parties to this appeal as to which parties defendant have filed this exception of prescription. This apparently arises out of the fact that there were oral exceptions urged at the time of trial. In any event, the only exception in this record is the peremptory exception of prescription filed by The Travelers Insurance Company alleging that the cause of action occurred on December 6, 1974, while the executive officers of Tenneco and their alleged liability insurer, The Travelers Insurance Company, were not named as defendants until March 21, 1977. Travelers therefore urges the prescription of one year as provided in Civil Code Article 3536. The trial court rendered judgment “on the motion of Travelers Insurance Company, on their exception of no cause of action based upon prescription” maintaining the exception and dismissing plaintiff’s suit. We therefore consider only that exception.

The situation is this. Plaintiff filed a tort suit on November 10, 1975 based upon injury suffered December 6, 1974. In that petition he sued Tenneco, Inc., Tenneco Oil Company and Tennessee Gas Transmission Company along with The Travelers Insurance Company as their insurer. He also sued his employer, Delta Field Erection Company, Inc. and its insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. In that petition plaintiff alleged that he was working for Delta on the property of the Tenneco defendants when he was struck by the boom of a crane owned by Tenneco and operated by Delta. He alleged that the cables of the boom were defective and that the condition was known to “defendant Tenneco, as well as the executive officers, managers, and/or foremen of defendant Delta”. Plaintiff alleged “that The Travelers Insurance Company issued a policy of liability insurance to defendant Tenneco covering its officers, managers and/or employees for negligence,” but he did not make any of those officers, etc. parties defendant. Tenneco’s negligence was alleged to be knowingly permitting defective cables to be used in the operation of its equipment, inviting and offering for use equipment in defective, dangerous and weakened condition, and failing to warn persons using the equipment of its [1278]*1278dangerous, weakened and defective condition. The petition prayed for judgment jointly, severally and in solido against the defendants, particularly the Tenneco group and The Travelers Insurance Company.

The plaintiff then amended his petition four times, all of the amendments having to do with Delta and its executive officers, etc., except that in the fourth supplemental and amended petition plaintiff amended the negligence of Tenneco to add permitting use of the equipment of inadequate design and structure for the job. It was not until the fifth supplemental and amended petition filed on March 21, 1977 that plaintiff expanded and particularized the negligence of the Tenneco personnel and named a number of executive officers and employees as parties defendant.

On this appeal a number of arguments have been presented to us concerning the posture of the various defendants, and the manner in which the rules concerning prescription may apply in each case. However, we do not propose to discuss the merits or demerits of the judgment appealed from as it applies to any of those other parties. We have set out above the only matter before us, that is, the exception of The Travelers Insurance Company as insurer of the executive officers of Tenneco. We confine our review only to that exception and the judgment rendered thereon.

We refer to the petition which we have detailed in some pertinent degree above, and we particularly refer to Article VI of the original petition which we quote:

“Plaintiff is informed and believes that The Travelers Insurance Company issued a policy of liability insurance to defendant Tenneco covering its officers, managers and/or employees for negligence and that such policy was in full force and effect on or about December 6, 1974.”

The only allegation as to Travelers’ liability in that petition is Article VI, which, when considered with the other allegations are sufficient to have brought Travelers into this suit, for the purposes of this exception. LSA-R.S. 22:655 grants to injured persons in Louisiana the right of direct action against the insurer within the terms and limits of the policy, and such action may be brought against the insurer alone.

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Bluebook (online)
363 So. 2d 1275, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3029, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-tenneco-inc-lactapp-1978.