Sharman v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

107 So. 2d 315
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 25, 1958
DocketNo. 8900
StatusPublished

This text of 107 So. 2d 315 (Sharman v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance) 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
Sharman v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, 107 So. 2d 315 (La. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

This is an action by four surviving children and two grandchildren of Willie R. Sharman, an eighty year old widower, who received fatal injuries on November 20, 1957, when struck by an automobile operated by the minor daughter of John Kuprionis. The accident occurred in the intersection of South Trenton Street and Louisiana Avenue, Ruston, Louisiana, about 7:25 o’clock p. m., when the night was dark and rainy. After trial there was judgment rejecting plaintiffs’ demands, hence this appeal.

Appellants allege the accident was caused solely by the negligence of the operator of the automobile, Danute Kuprionis, in driving at a dangerous and excessive rate of speed, in failing to yield the right-of-way or passage across the street to a pedestrian, and in failing to maintain and keep a proper lookout. The respondents der£y any fault on the part of Miss Kuprionis, and have specially plead the contributory negligence of the deceased in failing to keep a proper lookout for motor vehicles, and in stepping into a street against the traffic control light outside of a pedestrian crosswalk. Defendants filed exceptions of no cause or right of action as to the claims of the grandchildren joined as plaintiffs in this cause.1

At the intersection where the accident occurred South Trenton Street runs north and south and Louisiana Avenue runs generally east and west and intersects South Trenton Street, although it does not continue straight across, but forms a “T” intersection, and some distance north of the intersection continues toward the west. South Trenton Street is of concrete construction and is forty-nine feet in width. Facing east at the intersection is the First Baptist Church, located on the west side of South Trenton Street and the Lincoln Parish Court House is on the opposite side of the same street. Traffic control at the intersection is from two semaphore lights, one of which regulates traffic proceeding northerly along South Trenton Street and traffic proceeding westerly along Louisiana Avenue. Another semaphore light regulates traffic proceeding southerly along South Trenton Street and traffic proceeding easterly along’ Louisiana Avenue. A marked walkway for pedestrians crosses South Trenton Street near the south line of Louisiana Avenue. The intersection is not well lighted and is shaded by trees which substantially affect its illumination, especially when the night is dark and it is raining.

Immediately before the accident, Danute Kuprionis was driving her fathers’ Chevrolet automobile southerly along South Trenton Street and as she approached the intersection with Louisiana Avenue, the traffic control light registered green in her favor. [317]*317As she crossed the intersection, traveling in her right lane of traffic, she felt something strike the right front fender of the automobile and saw the body of Sharman. She immediately stopped her vehicle, parked it, and went back to where she found the body lying in the street. The witness testified that at the time she entered the intersection the traffic signal light was green in her favor and she was proceeding at a rate of speed of about twenty miles per hour. Her lights were on dim and the windshield wipers were working. She said she did not sound her horn and stated further, that at no time prior to contact between her automobile and the body of Sharman, did she see the deceased.

At the moment of the accident Mrs. John L. Matthews, who was driving west on Louisiana Avenue, was stopped at the intersection because of an adverse light. She testified that while waiting in this position she did not see any one crossing South Trenton Street between the courthouse square and the church; that she observed a car going south on South Trenton Street and it crossed the intersection on a green light at a speed of about twenty miles per hour; and that the night was dark and it was at the time raining, a slow drizzle. As the light changed Mrs. Matthews proceeded forward, and upon seeing the deceased lying on the street she stopped her automobile to avoid running over the body. This was the first time, she said, she noticed Sharman in the intersection. She described the clothes worn by the deceased as being dark, and said he was wearing a hearing aid and did not have a hat.

Another witness, Scott Monroe Wea-thersby, Jr., was approaching in a car for the purpose of meeting his father who was at a church meeting scheduled to be out about 7:30 o’clock p. m. At the time Wea-thersby was going north on South Trenton Street. He testified it was a dark night and drizzling rain. He said he did not notice any pedestrians crossing South Trenton Street, and observed the spot where the impact occurred was dark. The first time he saw Mr. Sharman, his body was in the air and simultaneously he saw the car which struck the deceased coming toward him. He stopped his car in a vacant parking place and ran to the church for the purpose of summoning an ambulance. He described the clothes of the deceased as being dark and said he observed that Sharman wore a hearing aid and glasses.

Another motorist, Wilbur Arthur Whitaker, testified that about 7:30 o’clock p. m. he was proceeding north on South Trenton Street and had passed through the intersection with said street with Texas. He observed that the light ahead at the subject intersection, about a block away, was green and a car was proceeding through the intersection on the green light. He said he did not see any person cross in front of the headlights of that car, nor did he see the car strike the deceased. He stopped his automobile when the car in front of him stopped, and then he noticed the body of the deceased lying on the pavement. Whitaker described the night as being dark with a light drizzle falling. This witness was a twenty-seven year old student at Louisiana Tech and was studying mechanical engineering while working for an electrical company. He was asked to describe the lighting conditions prevailing at the intersection at the time of the accident. He testified there was nothing unusual about the lighting in that there was no special lighting at that particular point; that the only illumination was from a street light on the corner across from the church and such as was made by the two traffic controlled lights.

Robert W. Edwards, a city police officer, arrived at the scene of the accident a few moments after it occurred. He ascertained the body of the deceased was fifteen feet from the west curb of South Trenton Street and twenty-five feet south of an expansion joint in the concrete crossing South Trenton Street in line with the south line of Louisiana Avenue and running from the west to the east line [318]*318of Trenton Street. He described the pedestrian crosswalk as being marked with yellow paint and said that parking on the west side of Trenton Street in front of the First Baptist Church was at an angle. He testified the weather was bad in that it was raining and the night was dark. He used a flashlight to check the body of the deceased.

The testimony of the several witnesses who testified gives no indication Danute Kuprionis was exceeding any speed limit fixed by the city traffic ordinance of Rus-ton, and uncontrovertably establishes Miss Kuprionis entered the intersection upon a favorable traffic light. It also establishes that Miss Kuprionis did not see the deceased before he was struck by her automobile. Neither was Mr. Sharman observed before the accident by Mrs. John L. Matthews and Mr. Scott Monroe Weathersby, either of whom was in a position from which the deceased could have been observed if he was engaged in crossing South Trenton Street.

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Bluebook (online)
107 So. 2d 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharman-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-lactapp-1958.