Schoonmaker v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania

156 So. 2d 82, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1894
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 1, 1963
DocketNo. 5919
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 156 So. 2d 82 (Schoonmaker v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania) 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
Schoonmaker v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania, 156 So. 2d 82, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1894 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

HERGET, Judge.

From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Samuel F. Schoonmaker, against defendants, David I. Perkins and The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania (the liability insurer of Perkins’ employer, the Department of Public Safety, State of Louisiana) for the sum of $6,196.32, Defendants appealed.

Plaintiff answered the appeal praying that the judgment be increased to $17,-272.21.

The suit arises out of an intersectional collision which occurred on the morning of January 19, 1961 at Acadian Throughway and Florida Street in the City of Baton Rouge. On the morning of the accident it had been raining and the streets were wet. Acadian Throughway is a six lane artery of commerce bearing northerly-southerly with three lanes for traffic in each direction. Florida Street is a four lane street traversing easterly-westerly with equal lanes for traffic in each direction. The intersection is controlled for traffic by a semaphore light.

Plaintiff’s testimony was that he was proceeding in a southerly direction. Upon reaching the intersection, described and. referred to supra, he stopped his vehicle in the westernmost lane of Acadian Throughway because the traffic light facing him commanded him to do so. To the left of Plaintiff were two motorists occupying the other lanes for southbound [84]*84traffic who likewise obediently stopped at the intersection.

According to the testimony of defendant Perkins, he was traveling west on the inside lane, or southernmost lane, of the two lanes allowed for westerly travel on Florida Street at a rate of speed estimated to be between 25-35 miles per hour. Upon reaching a point about ten feet from the intersection the semaphore light, located approximately in the center of the intersecting streets, changed from green to amber facing him and upon observing the vehicles stopped on Acadian Throughway he accelerated his vehicle and attempted to cross the intersection.

Mr. Wallace Goetzman, a witness to the accident, testified he was in the innermost lane for southbound traffic on Acadian Throughway. When the light signalled green in his favor he proceeded forward but upon observing Perkins’ car moving forward into the intersection when the signal light indicated red for Perkins, Goetzman stopped his vehicle. Likewise, the Plaintiff, upon being favored with a green light, without observing traffic to his right or left, went forward and not having observed the Perkins vehicle collided with same at a point the investigating police officers fixed at 14 feet south of the north parallel line of Florida Street and 8 feet east of the west parallel line of Acadian Throughway.

Mr. Frank C. Taylor testified as a witness on behalf of Plaintiff. He stated he was traveling in an easterly direction on Florida Street and had stopped at the intersection because he was faced with a red light. After Perkins’ vehicle was in collision with Schoonmaker’s it struck the Taylor vehicle while so stopped. It was Mr. Taylor’s testimony that he was in this stopped position when he observed the westbound Perkins vehicle enter the intersection.

Mr. Michael Plonk testified he was immediately behind the Taylor vehicle and, though he was approaching the intersection and moving at the time of the collisions, he was certain Mr. Perkins entered the intersection on a red light.

It was stipulated the cycle of the semaphore was set so that the signal would remain on the amber light for three and a half seconds. Attributing to the Perkins vehicle a speed of 30 miles per hour, it would travel 44 feet per second. If Mr. Perkins were correct in his testimony that he was only 10 feet from the intersection when the light cycle changed to amber, he would have traversed 154 feet and, accordingly, would have cleared the sixty-two foot width of the Acadian Throughway. It is apparent, therefore, that Mr. Perkins was incorrect in his estimate of being 10 feet from the intersection when the light changed from green to the customary caution signal. Conservatively, he must have been at least 100 feet east of the intersection when such cycle occurred as he traveled 54 of the 62 foot width of Acadian Throughway before the impact. Though Mr. Perkins denied he increased the speed of his vehicle in an effort to cross the intersection before the light demanded his stopping, the physical facts would indicate he was incorrect in this statement.

Learned counsel for Defendants maintain Plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence by his entering the intersection, though favored with a green light, without observing the presence of the oncoming Perkins vehicle entering therein. In support of such contention they rely on Dupuy v. Maury, La.App., 136 So.2d 302; Potts v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, La.App., 135 So.2d 77 and Martin v. Slocum, La.App., 147 So.2d 454. All of these cases are authority for the principle of law a motorist is guilty of negligence if he proceeds into an intersection after a red light signal has changed to green favoring said motorist without allowing sufficient time for those lawfully within the intersection to clear same. Counsel for Defendants attempt to distinguish the jurisprudence enunciated in [85]*85Bryant v. Ouachita Coca-Cola Bottling Company, 239 La. 83, 117 So.2d 919 and Youngblood v. Robison, 239 La. 338, 118 So.2d 431 in relation to the factual situation here involved, maintaining these cases are authority for a motorist approaching an intersection favored with a light proceeding through same without being required to anticipate another motorist entering the intersection from an opposing direction ignoring the admonishing red light, and such rule is inapplicable to instances as disclosed by the facts of this case where Mr. Schoonmaker was stopped at the intersection awaiting the cycle of the light from red to green. The question of conflict as to the decisions involving the rights and obligations of a motorist entering an intersection on a favorable light and colliding with another motorist’s vehicle in the intersection, who likewise had entered therein on an opposing street on a favorable light, was aptly explained in the recent case of Allen v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., La.App., 151 So.2d 122, (Defendant’s application to the Supreme Court for writs was refused on May 14, 1963, 244 La. 466, 152 So.2d 562) a decision of this Court wherein the majority, 151 So.2d at page 127, said:

“ * * * We believe the key to the seeming conflict in the two rules involved, namely, the right of the motorist entering on a favorable signal to proceed despite a change in signal and the right of a party faced with a go signal to proceed without looking to right or left, is that the smooth and orderly flow of traffic requires that all vehicles lawfully within an intersection when a light change occurs must be afforded an opportunity to clear and must be permitted to pass through by all opposing vehicles whether stationary or in motion, provided the driver of the crossing vehicle continues his crossing in a careful and orderly manner, with due dispatch and with careful attention to and observation of opposing traffic which may be expected to proceed upon the changing of the traffic signal.”

We are of the opinion the sole proximate cause of this accident was the negligence of Mr. Perkins entering the intersection in disobedience of the traffic signal. Accordingly, Mr. Schoonmaker, who entered the intersection fct right angle to Perkins on a favorable light, was under no obligation to anticipate such action on the part of Perkins.

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Related

Schoonmaker v. Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania
157 So. 2d 232 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
156 So. 2d 82, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schoonmaker-v-insurance-co-of-the-state-of-pennsylvania-lactapp-1963.