Rollins v. Evangeline Parish Police Jury

640 So. 2d 432, 93 La.App. 3 Cir. 1293, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 1433, 1994 WL 164529
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 4, 1994
DocketNo. 93-1293
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 640 So. 2d 432 (Rollins v. Evangeline Parish Police Jury) 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
Rollins v. Evangeline Parish Police Jury, 640 So. 2d 432, 93 La.App. 3 Cir. 1293, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 1433, 1994 WL 164529 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

hKNOLL, Judge.

This tort claim involves an accident which occurred when Steve Rollins’ Datsun pickup truck struck potholes on Rollins Road, went out of control, and flipped over. The trial court cast the Evangeline Parish Police Jury (Evangeline Parish), the owner of the road, with 75% fault and Rollins with 25%. It also awarded Rollins $60,000 damages, general and special, and $5,000 to his wife for loss of consortium.

Evangeline Parish appeals, contending that the trial court erred: (1) in finding it liable for Rollins’ accident; (2) alternatively, in its assessment of fault; and, (3) in finding causation between Rollins’ accident and his carpal tunnel syndrome. We affirm the finding of liability, amend the trial court’s allocation of fault, and affirm the trial court’s quantum award.

FACTS

On April 27, 1992, Jimmy Dicks, a deputy of the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office, was dispatched to Rollins Road to compile an incident report which involved a one vehicle accident Steve Rollins had two weeks earlier at approximately 10:30 p.m. on April 13, 1992. Deputy Dicks reported that Rollins lost control of his 1975 Datsun truck on Rollins Road when he struck a set of potholes 12while travelling west at approximately 40-45 mph. Rollins reported to Dicks that his truck then flipped onto its side when it struck a second set of holes, skidded along the iron fence in front of Morein’s cattle pen, and came to a halt 65 feet farther down in the ditch. The truck’s final resting position was on its side (driver side down) perpendicular to the road.

Rollins testified that he crawled out through the passenger window and righted his truck. Shortly afterwards, Brandon Granger, a seventeen year old, crossed the accident scene. Granger was concerned because Rollins’ truck blocked a large part of the road; he testified that he hooked a rope onto the truck’s back bumper and pulled it so that it was parallel to the road. Granger then gave Rollins a ride to Kenneth Clark’s house. Clark testified that he and his wife drove Rollins back to the wrecked truck, hooked a chain to the truck, and pulled it to Rollins’ home.

EVANGELINE PARISH’S LIABILITY

Evangeline Parish first contends that the trial court erred in finding it liable for Rollins’ accident. It argues that Rollins failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he sustained an accident and refers us to inconsistent testimony of Rollins and the corroborating witnesses.1

In particular, Evangeline Parish asserts that there were varying descriptions of: (1) whether Rollins or Clark righted Rollins’ truck after the accident; (2) whether the pot holes were repaired two days after the accident or more than two weeks later; (3) why Rollins waited two weeks to report the acci[434]*434dent; (4) whether Rollins’ truck skidded on its side before hitting the ditch; (5) whether the truck struck the iron fence at Morein’s cattle pen; and, (6) whether the pot holes on Rollins Road could have warped the front rims of Rollins’ truck.

The Louisiana Supreme Court in Stobart v. State Through DOTD, 617 So.2d 880, 882-883 (La.1993), stated:

la“A court of appeal may not set aside a trial court’s or a jury’s finding of fact in the absence of ‘manifest error’ or unless it is ‘clearly wrong.’ This court has announced a two-part test for the reversal of a fact-finder’s determinations:
1) The appellate court must find from the record that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of the trial court, and
2) the appellate court must further determine that the record establishes that the finding is clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous).
This test dictates that a reviewing court must do more than simply review the record for some evidence which supports or controverts the trial court’s finding. The reviewing court must review the record in its entirety to determine whether the trial court’s finding was clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous.
Nevertheless, the issue to be resolved by a reviewing court is not whether the trier of fact was right or wrong, but whether the factfinder’s conclusion was a reasonable one. Even though an appellate court may feel its own evaluations and inferences are more reasonable than the factfinder’s, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review where conflict exists in the testimony. However, where documents or objective evidence so contradict the witness’s story, or the story itself is so internally inconsistent or implausible on its face, that a reasonable factfinder would not credit the witness’s story, the court of appeal may find manifest error or clear wrongness even in a finding purportedly based upon a credibility determination. Nonetheless, this Court has emphasized that ‘the reviewing court must always keep in mind that “if the trial court or jury’s findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse, even if convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.” ’
This court has recognized that ‘[t]he reason for this well-settled principle of review is based not only upon the trial court’s better capacity to evaluate live witnesses (as compared with the appellate court’s access only to a cold record), but also upon the proper allocation of trial and appellate functions between the respective courts.’ Thus, where two permissible views of the evidence exist, the factfinder’s choice between them cannot be manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong.” (Citations omitted.)

In the case sub judice, the strongest argument made by Evangeline Parish is that Rollins waited approximately two weeks to I ¿report that he had been involved in an accident. Rollins’ explanation for this delay was that even though he was not hospitalized, the pain of his injuries prevented him from reporting the accident.

Although Evangeline Parish persuasively contends otherwise and asserts that Rollins’ dilatoriness supported its contention that there was no accident, Stobart requires us to review the record as a whole. Notwithstanding Rollins’ delay in reporting the accident and the various inconsistencies of the witnesses, the physical evidence shows that Rollins’ truck did leave the road just beyond the potholes and the testimonies of Clark and Granger, the two witnesses who aided Rollins just after the accident, corroborate that finding. Considering the extent of the potholes across the road and the physical evidence, we cannot say that the trial court was clearly wrong in finding that Rollins had an accident when his vehicle struck the potholes, went out of control, and ultimately overturned in the road.

APPORTIONMENT OF FAULT

Evangeline Parish next contends that the trial court was manifestly erroneous in its apportionment of only 25% fault to Rol[435]*435lins. In support of its argument it cites Guilbeau v. St. Landry Parish Police Jury, 600 So.2d 859 (La.App. 3 Cir.1992), writ denied, 606 So.2d 544 (La.1992), as a case very similar to the case sub judice, where this court reduced the police jury’s fault from 100% to 50%.

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Bluebook (online)
640 So. 2d 432, 93 La.App. 3 Cir. 1293, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 1433, 1994 WL 164529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rollins-v-evangeline-parish-police-jury-lactapp-1994.